The Federal Government Must Demarcate Indigenous Lands and Guarantee Health and Indigenous Education
Alvaro de Azevedo Gonzaga Kaiowá is an Indigenous person from the Guarani Kaiowá ethnic group and author of the book Indigenous Decolonialism. He is a professor of law at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and a member of the Indigenous Parliament. He participated in the Transition Team of the new Lula government. This text was originally written for issue 58 of the WBO Newsletter, published on March 17, 2023. Fill in the form at the bottom of the text to access and subscribe to the WBO weekly newsletter in English.
One of Brazil’s undeniable characteristics is a multifaceted reality made up of people of different colors, races, ethnicities, beliefs, and cosmovision of life.
The Native peoples form their own microcosm within this reality. We Indigenous people are made up of 305 different ethnic groups. The most numerous are the Tikunas and the Guaranis. In addition, we have many languages, most of them derived from the same linguistic trunk, as in the case of Guarani, from which Kaiowá derives, among many others. The way of life of our peoples is also extremely varied. We have, for example, an estimated 115 uncontacted I Indigenous peoples, of which 28 are confirmed in this category and 87 are still under investigation.
The course of Brazil's history has been unquestionably negative for Indigenous peoples. Brazilian society was built on the heritage of the territory of the approximately 4 million Indigenous people who lived here. This society became rich with what Father Antônio Vieira called “red gold.” In this process, Indigenous peoples received by charity or by osmosis some of the attributes that are now an essential part of their culture.
The integration of these peoples into Brazilian society does not bring, as a counterpart, independence or freedom, much less does it solve their elementary problems of survival today. Currently, there are still lands to be demarcated. But that's not all: the lands that have already been recognized as Federal property still run the risk of being canceled through legal changes, not to mention the risk of being simply invaded and stolen to satisfy capitalist economic desires.
“Peoples living in urban centers constitute around 40 percent of the total Brazilian Indigenous population. Often, these Indigenous people are classified as brown (pardo). They are frequently excluded from quotas established for Indigenous peoples in selection processes. It is common for them to be treated as subordinates, who also are affected by urban violence”
The variety of colors, races, ethnicities, beliefs and cosmovision of life also manifests itself in a range of anguishes and struggles. In the North, the Yanomami need food so they don't starve, while the Barés fight the miners and loggers who killed Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira in the Amazon rainforest. In the Northeast, the Pataxó fight for the preservation of their lands in Coroa Vermelha. In the Midwest, the Guaranis are fighting to maintain their lives so as not to be shot dead. In the South, there is racism against Indigenous peoples, as is the case with the Kaingangs, victims of constant attacks by those who question their Indigenous origins. In the Southeast, there is the struggle for land in an urban context and the fight for housing, often in the outskirts of cities.
The disrespect for Indigenous culture and its cosmovision appears in the most varied forms, including crimes, such as the ethnocide against Tanaru, also known as the “Indigenous Man of the Hole,” the last surviving member of an Indigenous group, whose body was vilified under the false argument that an investigation would be carried out. In the end, his bones were returned to be buried without the rites of his ethnicity, which since his death has possibly become extinct.
Peoples living in urban centers constitute around 40 percent of the total Brazilian Indigenous population, according to data from Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Often, these Indigenous people are classified as brown (pardo). They are frequently excluded from quotas established for Indigenous peoples in selection processes. It is common for them to be treated as subordinates, who also are affected by urban violence.
How do we unite the more than 30 percent of those ethnic groups living in isolation and the approximately 40 percent that are living in urban areas? Let us recall the brilliant thinker and decolonizer Paulo Freire who stated: “The divergent unite to defeat the antagonistic.” Among the Indigenous differences, which are many, there are themes that are common and unite us against the antagonistic ones.
In March of 2022, the musician Caetano Veloso called on people to come to the Demonstration in Defense of Land (Ato pela Terra), with the participation of important indigenous leaders, in addition to many others who, unable to travel to Brasília, issued a united cry for the Earth in the countryside and in the city.
We Indigenous people have been fighting for land for over 522 years. We have more than 522 lands to demarcate and another 13 that only depend on the signature of the president of the republic.
Indigenous health is another issue that deserves attention. We have a big challenge ahead because of budget cuts of around 60 percent 2023 and the difficulties imposed by Covid-19.
The first major challenge is the dire situation of the Yanomami in Roraima, who need to expel the illegal miners operating on Indigenous land. There are 28,000 indigenous people there and 14,000 of them are sick with malaria, malnutrition and other ailments, surrounded by a mining population of 20,000 individuals. In addition, ultraconservative religious groups are present in this context, benefiting from public money to catechize Indigenous peoples.
In our Working Group in the Transition Process for the new Lula administration, we called for the creation of an education secretariat for indigenous peoples, rather than a coordination office, which has less space and less autonomy.
The new FUNAI – formerly called the National Foundation for the Indian and today called the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples – is no longer part of the Ministry of Justice. It now functions within the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. The term “Indian” had a very strong ideological connotation and made people associate the Indigenous with negative characteristics, such as the idea that they were lazy, indolent, primitive, savage, backward or even cannibals, in addition to the fact that it ignored all of the diversity present among the original peoples. The struggle we face today is to strengthen and rebuild this entire sector of the government by investing in the careers of its employees and encouraging civil service exams to hire people.
Demarcating land, protecting health and improving education: this is the tripod.
It is difficult, but we have always been, will be, and will not stop being together for unity and respect for Indigenous peoples.
