01/Feb/2020
APIB – Coalition of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) , along with several indigenous, indigenists and human rights organizations of Brazil, vehemently rejects the notification that the Chairmanship of Funai (National Indinegous Foundation) intends to designate an evangelical pastor connected to proselytizing activities of the New Tribes Mission of Brasil (MNTB), a North American missionary organization, to take Funai’s General Coordination for Isolated and Recent Contact peoples. The harmful effects of proselytizing activities on isolated indigenous peoples in Brazilian territory are known throughout history. There are countless occasions in which the coercive contact by missionary groups, including those connected to MNTB, resulted in a high number of deaths from illnesses, socio-cultural disruption and deterritorialization.
FUNAI, headed by a Federal Police chief appointed by members of the Ruralist lobby, is once more undermining the indigenous peoples rights, as well as dismantling the federal indigenous agency and the policy of non-contact with isolated indigenous peoples that began in 1987, and has international recognition. Instead of searching for competent technical staff within the Foundation, those with experience on working with isolated peoples, with technical capacity and aligned with the constitutional principals of honouring the autonomy of indigenous peoples, FUNAI yields to evangelical and proselytizing interests, undermining the secular policy of respect for indigenous peoples, that goes against what the 1988 Constitution determines.
We denounce, once again, the rapid dismantling of the public policies for indigenous peoples done by the Bolsonaro government, through the indigenous policies subjugation to the interests of religious groups that support their government and, in many cases, to the ruralist group that eagers the lands traditionally occupied by these peoples. It is another situation prone to violate the human rights intentionally triggered by the current government, and that could lead to the physical, sociocultural and spiritual death of isolated and recently contacted indigenous peoples living in Brazil. Indigenous peoples in Brazil and their representative organizations will continue fighting against the anti-indigenous measures of the Bolsonaro government and enduring for the sake of a republican and secular indigenous policy, which abides the indigenous rights, secured by the 1988 Constitution.
01/Feb/2020
L’APIB – Articulation des Peuples Indigènes du Brésil, avec d’autres organisations indigènes, indigénistes et de défense des droits de l’homme dans le pays, désapprouve avec force l’information indiquant que la présidence de la Funai (fondation nationale de l’indien) prépare la nomination d’un pasteur évangélique lié aux activités prosélytes de la Missão Novas Tribus do Brasil (MNTB), organisation missionnaire d’origine nord-américaine, pour prendre en charge la coordination générale des indiens isolés et de contact récent de la Funai. Les conséquences néfastes des activités prosélytes sur les peuples indigènes isolés au Brésil au cours de l’histoire sont connues. Il y a d’innombrables situations où le contact forcé provoqué par des groupes missionnaires, y compris liés au MNTB, a eu comme conséquence rapide un nombre élevé de morts à cause de maladies, déstructuration socio-culturelle et déterritorialisation. La Funai, dirigée par un délégué de la Police Fédérale, nommé par le lobby de l’agro-industrie, viens une fois de plus porter atteinte aux droits des peuples indigènes, démonter l’organe indigéniste fédéral et une politique de non contact avec les peuples indigènes isolés initiée en 1987 et qui a une reconnaissance internationale.
Au lieu de chercher au sein de la Fondation elle-même un encadrement technique compétent, avec de l’expérience de travail avec les peuples isolés, une capacité technique et un alignement avec les préceptes constitutionnels de respect à l’autonomie des peuples indigènes, la Funai cède aux intérêts évangéliques et prosélytes, venant miner une politique laïque de respect aux peuples indigènes et confronter ce que détermine la Constitution de 1988.
Nous dénonçons, une fois de plus, le démantèlement rapide des politiques publiques à destination des peuples indigènes du gouvernement Bolsonaro, par la soumission de la politique indigéniste aux intérêts de groupes religieux qui apportent leur soutien à son gouvernement et, souvent, à des groupes « ruralistes » intéressés par les terres traditionnellement occupées par ces peuples. C’est une situation de plus propice à la violation de droits humains provoquée intentionnellement par le gouvernement actuel, qui pourra conduire à la mort physique, socio-culturelle et spirituelle des peuples indigènes isolés et de récent contact qui vivent au Brésil.
Les peuples indigènes au Brésil et leurs organisations représentatives continueront de lutter contre les mesures anti-indigènes du gouvernement Bolsonaro et en faveur d’une politique indigéniste républicaine et laïque, qui rend effectifs les droits indigènes inscrits dans la Constitution de 1988.
20/Jan/2020
We, representatives of 45 indigenous peoples in Brazil, more than 600 participants, were summoned by chief Raoni to meet between January 14 and 18, 2020 in the village Piaraçu (Terra Indígena Capoto Jarina), with the objective of bringing together our forces and denounce that a political project of the Brazilian government of genocide, ethnocide and ecocide is underway.
The Brazilian State has to understand that it has a historic debt to indigenous peoples. We are the first inhabitants of our country. We not only defend the environment: we are Nature itself. If they kill the environment, they are killing us. We want the forest forever standing, not because the forest is beautiful, but because all these beings that inhabit the forest are part of us and run in our blood.
The Brazilian State recognizes indigenous rights by the Federal Constitution of 1988 in Articles 231 and 232, in which’s creation we were involved, in addition to other national and international legal standards, such as the 169 convention of OIT. So we demand, that whenever projects and decisions that may impact and threaten our territories and ways of life are projected, our right to free, prior and informed consultation be respected.
We don’t need to destroy to produce. They cannot sell our wealth; money does not pay for it. Our territory is very rich, not in money, we are rich in diversity and this whole forest depends on our culture to stand. What counts for us is our land. This is worth more than life. And we are the ones who can sustain nature are, us who never destroyed or polluted our river. We take care of our land; we know it’s value. We must protect that which our ancestors left us.
The current government’s threats and hate speech are promoting violence against indigenous peoples and the murder of our leaders. Today we must prepare ourselves to face not only the government, but also to react to the violence of some sectors of society, who very clearly express racism just because we are indigenous.
The indigenous women present at the gathering, leaders and warriors, generators and protectors of life, reaffirm their fight against the abuses that their bodies, spirits and territories are facing. It is women who guarantee our ways of life and our language. They guarantee our existence in our collective home. We indigenous women and men fight side by side for the right to the land that feeds and heals us.
The indigenous youth present at this gathering reaffirms the commitment to continue the struggle of the leaders in defense of our lives, our territories and our right to exist. The knowledge and traditions that our grandparents taught us are the great solution to the threats against our people and our territories, and to the climate crisis that is coming. This new generation is ready to take the solutions they have been taught.
Only we can talk about ourselves and for ourselves. We do not admit chiefs being disrespected, just as Bolsonaro did in 2019 in his speech during the UN meeting against chief Raoni. We affirm that Chief Raoni is YES our leader and he represents us! He will be our reference, for his firm and peaceful struggle, for his leadership: today and always. That is why we support his candidacy as a Nobel Peace Prize. We demand that Congress legally recognize indigenous authorities as the first rulers of this country. Our lands are governed by our chiefs, indigenous authorities who decide in favor of communities, based on collective claims and not individuals.
The current president of the republic is threatening our rights, our health, our territory. The current government has a plan to permit extraction of ore, and livestock, in our territories. We join our forces, reunited together and show our strength in this document to continue our struggles that are being followed by our grandchildren. The current government is attacking us, wanting to take the land out of our hands. We do not accept gold digging, mining, agribusiness and leasing on our lands, we do not accept loggers, illegal fishermen, hydroelectric plants and other projects, such as Ferrogrão, that will impact us in a direct and irreversible way.
We are against everything that destroys our forests and our rivers. We don’t admit that Brasil be put on sale for other countries who have the intention of exploiting our territory. We want above everything respect for our lives, our traditions, our costums and the Federal Constitution which protects our rights.
We write this document as a clamor, so that we indigenous peoples can be listened to by the three powers of the republic, by society and by the international community.
Consultation processes must guarantee our right to say NO to government and Congress initiatives. Consultations must respect our traditional forms of political representation and organization, as well as our autonomous protocols for consultation and consent.
We make clear that the indigenous people that now hold positions in the federal government, without our participation in their appointment, and who support in some manner Bolsonaro’s government, do not represent us
We demand the compliance of our original right over our territories through the demarcation and homologation of the claimed indigenous lands. We repudiate the thesis of the timeframe and demand that stopped demarcation processes be resumed immediately, as Kapot Nhinore, the former claim of chief Raoni.
We are against the municipalization of indigenous health and against the political nomination for positions at SESAI. We demand the political, administrative and financial autonomy of the Special Indigenous Health Sanitary Districts – DSEI’s and the strengthening of social control through the recreation of the District Indigenous Health Councils Presidents Forum – CONDISI, extinguished by Decree 9.759 / 2019. We demand the guarantee of a qualified and adequate workforce for our service.
We demand compliance with the Conduct Adjustment Term – TAC signed between the Ministry of Health, FUNAI, SESAI, the Federal Public Defender’s Office and the Federal Public Ministry, which guarantees the continuity of services related to indigenous health policy. And we demand the holding of the 6th National Conference on Indigenous Health.
We demand compliance with the indigenous policy under the responsibility of FUNAI and SESAI for all indigenous peoples and indigenous territories in Brazil, and not only for the approved indigenous territories.
We reject the persecution and attempt to criminalize our leaders, indigenous and indigenous organizations, collaborators and partners.
We demand guarantee of the physical and moral integrity of our communities and leaders and the punishment of those who are killing our relatives.
We demand that the Brazilian State fulfill its constitutional responsibility to protect indigenous territories and the environment, restraining illegal activities and punishing criminals. We also demand that the government take responsibility for the poisoning of the air, soil and rivers caused by the irresponsible and uncontrolled use of pesticides around our lands.
We demand compliance with public policies for the protection of isolated and recently contacted peoples.
We demand a differentiated and quality education for our young people, which allows them to complete their training, from basic education to high school, in our territories. We do not accept the scrapping of public universities and we ask for the guarantee of continuity of scholarships for indigenous youths who are going to study in the city at universities. The university education of young people is important for the continuity of our struggle. It is a space that ensures that we are prepared for the changes that threaten us. For this reason, the youth holds the pen in their hands next to what has been taught by their grandparents to launch the arrow that was given to them, to continue fighting. Being at university only makes sense if we exercise our spirituality. In this sense, we ask Brazilian society to join us in the struggle for access to plural and democratic universities, for university education that values and recognizes the science of the territory.
We want policies to strengthen sustainable economic alternatives for our territories, without the use of pesticides, and that promote the economy of the Standing Forest, with an emphasis on culture, traditional knowledge, no extractivisim and clean technologies.
We are human beings, we are the originary people from Brazil. We are part of Brazil and Brazil is part of us. We do not accept them saying that our territories are too big, because that does not compare to the size and strength of our culture and to what we have contributed to maintain, not only our lives and ways of life, but the lives of everyone on the planet. Brazil was not born first, it was us indigenous peoples, and we were massacred, but we continue to resist in order to exist.
We are not alone. At this great meeting, we declare the resumption of the Forest People’s Alliance, which includes the Caatinga, Pantanal, Cerrado, Atlantic Forest and the Amazon. We will be together defending the protection of our territories. This struggle is not only for indigenous peoples, but for all of us, it is a struggle for the life of the planet.
We conclude certain that 2020 will be a year of a lot of struggle, and we call on all relatives and partners of Indigenous Peoples, in Brazil and abroad, for a year of many mobilizations, where we must be present with the strength and energy of our ancestors in Brasilia and on the streets around the world. The fight will continue until the last Indigenous person is standing!
Piaraçu Village, January 18, 2020
18/Jan/2020
In 2019, the first year of Bolsonaro government, we felt in our skin the cruel dismantling of the State, of social rights and of public policies achieved hroughout the past 31 years, since the 1988’s constitutional pact.
The year was marked by the exponential increase in intencional fires and the deforestation of protected areas in the Amazon and the Cerrado, affecting mainly indigenous territories and conservation units – with interference of land grabbers, loggers, miners, large livestock farmers, among others. Such crimes have been added to the burst of Brumadinho dam, as well as to the murders of environmentalists, quilombola and indigenous leaders, guardians of the forest, and also to the oil spill on the northeast beaches, under late reaction by the government. In the cities, black children and youngsters, and women keep on dying by actions of police force. And the underemployed people reached 24 million, accompanied by 12 million unemployed and 4 million people in a state of misery.
On the indigenous peoples situation, there was a outright affront to national and international legislation that ensures the rights to territory and identity as well as differentiated public policies. Towards the same direction, the government took a stand against environmental legislation and national environmental policy, configuring an ethnocidal, genocidal and ecocidal government profile.
Social organizations and movements, however, endured. Indigenous peoples and organizations have been mobilized throughout the year, including participations in spheres of international influence.
It is within that context that, on January 20 and 21, APIB scheduled a meeting for further enhancing the analysis of the national context and of the indigenous policy that is threatening the existence and fundamental rights of the peoples of the country.
Throughout the meeting, there will be discussions on struggle strategies, the planning of an anual schedule of actions, and the analysis of the main current threats. Coordinators and leaders of APIB from all regions of the country will take part on the meeting.
