09/May/2020
We, indigenous peoples, organizations and leaders from every region of Brazil, have been gathering for 16 years in the federal capital for our annual Free Land Camp (ATL), the Great National Indigenous Assembly. Due to the need for social isolation imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, we have held ATL online with a great number of discussions, debates, seminars, testimonies and livestreams throughout the week. For 520 years we have been resisting all kinds of invasions; besides physical violence, forced labor, and the plunder and expropriation of our territories, diseases were used as the main biological weapon to exterminate us. Currently, we are being attacked by the worst virus in the history of our country: the Bolsonaro government. Thus we have come to publicly denounce the following issues.
We denounce to national and international public opinion, that we, indigenous peoples of Brazil, more than 305 peoples, speakers of 274 different languages, are in the crosshairs and victims of a genocidal project of the government of Jair Messias Bolsonaro. Since the beginning of his mandate, he has chosen us as one of his priority targets, saying that he would not demarcate an inch more of indigenous land, and that all land demarcation carried out until now would have been forged, and therefore should be revised.
As soon as he took office, Bolsonaro issued Provisional Measure 870/19, which determined the dismantling of the National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI) and its powers, transferring the responsibility for environmental licensing and land demarcation to the Ministry of Agriculture, led by the Ruralist Caucus, a parliamentary faction renowned for its hostility towards our peoples, represented in the figure of the agriculturalist Minister Teresa Cristina, also known as the “muse of poison” [for her work to deregulate the use of pesticides]. The suspension of this Provisional Measure by the National Congress required a great deal of effort on our part and from our allies.
Bolsonaro dismantled public policies and bodies that had until then, albeit precariously, served our peoples, appointing people who are openly against indigenous rights, such as the president of the National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), federal police officer Marcelo Augusto Xavier da Silva. A former adviser for the Ruralist Caucus during the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) of FUNAI / INCRA in 2017, which incriminated civil servants, indigenous leaders, indigenist representatives and attorneys, Xavier da Silva published in the Federal Official Gazette, on April 22nd 2020, the Normative Instruction No. 09 that “rules on the requirements, regulation and analysis to issue a declaration of limits recognition in relation to private properties in indigenous lands”. Since it aims to legitimize and allow the issuance of land titles to invaders of indigenous lands, this measure contravenes the institutional duty of the indigenous body to protect the rights and territories of indigenous peoples. In addition to this decision by the president of Funai, other measures have been taken against indigenous peoples and their rights, namely: (1) the decision to review or to cancel administrative procedures for the demarcation of indigenous lands, such as the Tekoha Guasu Guavirá territory, in Guaíra and Terra Roxa (Paraná state), of the Avá-Guarani people; (2) the replacement or impairment of Working Groups on identification and delimitation issues; (3) the dismantling or alteration of Boards of indigenous bodies; (4) workplace harassment and bullying of public servants; (5) the continuation of public policies for homologated lands only; (6) the irresponsibility of not equipping, even financially, regional coordinations and grassroots groups in order to protect our peoples and territories from the Coronavirus pandemic; (7) authorizations that allow fundamentalist pastors to enter indigenous territories.
Thus, this government, subservient to national economic interests and international capital, aims to reduce and restrict our rights, especially territorial rights, by encouraging illegal practices on our lands, such as: mining, deforestation, logging, cattle farming, monocultures and land grabbing, which is about to be legalized through the bill 910/19, currently progressing through Congress. Further to these illegal practices, there are the constant threats of large-scale mining operations and various infrastructure projects such as hydroelectric plants, transmission lines and roads. All of these are clear attempts to transform public lands into commodities.
All of these illicit and unconstitutional acts constitute a death project for our peoples. They entail the destruction of our forests, our rivers, biodiversity, our life sources. In short, they entail the destruction of Nature, Mother Earth, a heritage that has been preserved for thousands of years by our peoples and that til today strategically contributes to the preservation of environmental and climatic stability and to the well-being of humanity, providing important environmental services to the planet.
It is this heritage that ruralists, agribusiness and international corporations want to steal from us; by restricting or suppressing our constitutional rights, they are actually claiming that our original rights, and our very existence, constitute an obstacle to their enterprises and their so-called development plans. That is why they are trying to reverse the legal basis of our rights, nationally and internationally, through measures such as Opinion 01/17, the ‘time frame thesis’, which aims to limit our right to the lands we have traditionally occupied to only those occupied on October 5th, 1988, date of promulgation of the Federal Constitution, which in fact, simply recognises a right that was already ours, our original birthright to the land, a right we have had since before the colonial invasion and the emergence of the Brazilian national State.
Our extermination seems to be a matter of honor for the Bolsonaro government, which is taking advantage of the pandemic crisis to intensify its negligence towards our peoples. Thus, it is also trying to put an end to the differentiated public policies won over the last 30 years in the education system, alternative economic activities, environmental laws and especially in healthcare. After attempting to bring an end to the indigenous health subsystem (SESAI) via plans to municipalize or privatize it, the spread of coronavirus in our territories has made clear the government’s genuine desire for our extinction: it does not protect us from invaders, on the contrary, allowing them to contaminate our communities, which could lead to mass extinction, beginning with our elders, who are sources of tradition and wisdom for our peoples, for generations to come. And as if that wasn’t enough, the government encourages harassment and violence by private interests over our natural assets and sacred territories. The recent dismissal of the director of environmental monitoring at IBAMA (the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) after his actions to crackdown on illegal mining in Tis in southern Pará, reveals the intentions of the current government.
Faced with this institutionalization of genocide by the Bolsonaro government, we alert national and international society, and demand the following actions:
1. The immediate demarcation, regularization, monitoring and protection of all indigenous lands;
2. The revocation of Opinion 001/17 of the Federal Attorney General;
3. The immediate removal of all invaders from indigenous lands – miners, land grabbers, loggers, farmers – given that they are destroying our natural resources along with our cultures, and, at this present time in particular, they are spreading diseases and COVID-19; constituting a serious risk for all peoples, especially indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation;
4. The adoption of measures that restrict the access of outsiders in indigenous communities, including miners, traders, loggers, as well as proselytizing fundamentalist religious groups that demonize, in our very own territories, our ways of life, spiritualities, knowledge, traditional ways of treating diseases;
5. The implementation of actions that aim to guarantee basic sanitation, drinking water, adequate housing and other equipment that ensure good sanitary infrastructure in the communities;
6. The adoption of measures that guarantee good nutritional status in all indigenous communities and the guarantee of a permanent plan for food security and sovereignty for our peoples and communities;
7. The facilitation of health teams to enter and remain in indigenous areas, ensuring that preventative actions to protect against the pandemic are effective and continued;
8. Adequate infrastructure and logistical support for health teams, providing them with all the necessary equipment for carrying out disease prevention, such as medicines, serums, gloves, masks, transportation, fuel;
9. The guarantee of referral hospitals – in municipal and state capitals – for medium and high complexity care, providing clinical tests and proper hospitalization for patients with COVID-19 and other diseases;
10. Financial resources for protective materials for all people in indigenous communities, such as clean water, soap, bleach, alcohol gel, gloves and masks, as well as adequate guidance in the importance of using these materials during the Covid-19 pandemic;
11. Provide adequate training for indigenous health workers, hygiene and environment officials, midwives and all those working in the health sector within communities, to protect and prevent COVID-19;
12. The immediate hiring of health professionals – doctors, nurses, nursing technicians, epidemiologists – to work in indigenous areas, to increase the current healthcare teams;
13. The immediate purchase of COVID-19 tests for as many people as possible in all indigenous communities, in order to get a proper diagnosis of the current situation of the pandemic within indigenous lands and, with this, to improve prevention, control and treatment;
14. End underreporting of infected indigenous people. All cases must be reported, regardless of whether they are in formally recognised indigenous lands or not, even those who live in urban areas. The Ministry of Health and the Emergency Public Health Operations Center must ensure that all indigenous cases and deaths are included in the Covid-19 Epidemiological Bulletin, in order that the complete data guide public policy;
15. The establishment of an Inter-institutional Crisis Committee, with seats guaranteed for indigenous peoples, appointed by APIB, to define strategies for the protection of indigenous peoples, aiming to jointly monitor activities related to territorial protection, food security, aid and benefits, raw materials and protocols against transmission, for all indigenous peoples. This Committee is not to be confused with the National Crisis Committee, which involves only the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health, and excludes care for indigenous people living outside Indigenous Lands;
16. FUNAI and SESAI, as well as Funai’s Regional Coordinations (CDRs) and Special Indigenous Sanitary Districts (DSEIs) must be incorporated into the Emergency Public Health Operations Center at national, state and municipal levels;
17. The National Congress must shelve all legislative initiatives of the Ruralist Caucus and other sectors of capital that aim to restrict or suppress the fundamental rights of our peoples, especially the original right to the lands that we traditionally occupy;
18 The Judiciary must suspend all proposals for repossession presented by invaders, alleged owners or entrepreneurs, against indigenous peoples who have retaken their traditional lands;
19. The Supreme Federal Court must judge as soon as possible the Extraordinary Appeal – RE nº 1017365, as having General Repercussion, in order to establish, definitively and fully, the Indigenato, the original birthright of traditional occupation of our lands and territories, in order to correct the trajectory of aggression against the indigenous peoples of Brazil.
20. The Bolsonaro government must suspend the execution of any infrastructure (hydroelectric plants, roads, etc.) or agro-industrial works that may impact our territories, since they allow for the presence of non-indigenous people, potential agents for the spread of Coronavirus and other harmful diseases to our peoples and communities.
21. Finally, we demand the revocation of Normative Instruction 09, of April 16th, 2020, published by the president of FUNAI, in the April 22nd edition of the Official Gazette (DOU), which allows, unlawfully and unconstitutionally, the transfer of land titles to private individuals within indigenous areas protected by Brazilian law. The National Congress must also shelve Provisional Measure 910/19, which attempts to legalize the criminal act of land grabbing in Indigenous Territories, Conservation Units and other territories of traditional communities.
To our peoples and organizations we say: always resist, with the wisdom received from our ancestors, for the present and future generations of our peoples. May national and international solidarity redouble in this moment of death, which is reinforced by the negligence of the Bolsonaro Government, but at the same time, a moment for the creation of a new era for our peoples, for Brazilian society and for humanity as a whole.
For the right to live. Indigenous Blood Not a Single Drop More.
Brazil, April 30th, 2020.
XVI Free Land Camp 2020
Coalition of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)
National Indigenous Mobilization
08/Apr/2020
Given the Bolsonaro government’s complete neglect in the face of the current crisis, indigenous peoples have taken their own measures to protect communities from the spread of Covid-19. While a national action plan to combat the pandemic has not been established, indigenous peoples have turned to state governments. On April 3, 2020, the Coalition of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) sent a letter to the governors of all 26 states and the Federal District requesting the adoption of special measures to protect indigenous peoples in face of threats from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The impacts of the coronavirus pandemic are increasing every day in Brazil. Indigenous peoples are in a situation of great vulnerability, with a real risk that this new virus will cause another genocide, with the potential to decimate whole communities. The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic among indigenous peoples and territories in Brazil emerges as a scenario of extreme concern, which must be immediately addressed by health authorities and indigenous organizations.
So far the death of two indigenous people has been confirmed. A woman from the Borari people in the municipality of Santarém, in Pará, died on March 20 and another indigenous person, from the Murá people, died on April 5 in the city of Manaus, in Amazonas. And four indigenous people of the Kokama people, including a baby, tested positive for Covid-19 this week, in the municipality of Santo Antônio do Içá, also in Amazonas State.
Indigenous peoples are not only exposed to the novel coronavirus, but also to the marked social vulnerability that makes it difficult to face the epidemic, as well as concerns with food security. Today, many indigenous communities need to buy food in town and depend on social programs, which requires additional measures to help communities implement social isolation strategies.
A number of existing illnesses make indigenous people vulnerable to coronavirus complications. This situation increases the need for access to services in specialized hospitals in capital cities. Indigenous territories are often distant from these towns and do not have adequate essential public services. This situation makes it difficult to identify and/or treat severe cases of coronavirus in indigenous populations.
APIB also reiterates concerns with the situation of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and recent contact (“uncontacted peoples”) in the Amazon. APIB proposes the adoption of protection strategies to prevent the entrance of outsiders into these territories, to help prevent the entry of the coronavirus.
APIB has consulted in depth with indigenous healthcare specialists, and proposes the following 10 urgent action points to help protect our communities from the spread of Covid-19:
1. Coordination between all state and municipal health secretariats with indigenous health agencies in order to guarantee access to information on the epidemiological situation and the actions being carried out in each indigenous territory and village, as well as among indigenous populations in urban areas;
2. Guarantee that emergency plans for the care of critically ill patients in the states and municipalities include the indigenous population, making the flow of indigenous patients and requests for assistance explicit and in a timely manner, in conjunction with indigenous health agencies;
3. Articulation with health secretariats, social assistance, and other social policies to enable the isolation and quarantine of those indigenous people who are in transit returning to their territories and need to take these preventive measures before their entry or in the case of suspected infections or confirmed cases of coronavirus;
4. Provision of rapid tests for Covid-19 and supply of these tests to all Special Indigenous Sanitary Districts in order to control the entry of indigenous people who are in urban centers and seek to return to their territories. Tests must be prioritized to control the entry and exit of indigenous territories, in order to ensure the virus does not spread widely among this population;
5. Inclusion of indigenous populations as a priority group in speeding up the provision of the annual flu vaccine;
6. Guarantee of stocks and provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for indigenous healthcare workers, as well as suspected and confirmed cases and their family members who may come to town with them;
7. For the duration of this health crisis, ensure the supply of medicines such as Oseltamivir, indicated for the groups most at risk of complications from the coronavirus, which in this case includes indigenous peoples, according to protocols from the Ministry of Health;
8. Support for Special Indigenous Sanitary Districts (DSEI) for training their health professionals to deal with and monitor the coronavirus, as in indigenous territories access to virtual communication is often precarious and insufficient;
9. Provision of hygiene materials and PPEs for all Indigenous Health Centers for patients and their caretakers, as well as health professionals;
10. Include indigenous organizations that are members of APIB in planning and emergency meetings in each state, in order to ensure that the specific needs and realities of indigenous peoples are addressed.
01/Apr/2020
Maranhão, March 31, 2020 – Our indigenous blood continues to be spilled! Zezico Guajajara was murdered and we of the Association of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – APIB demand justice! His body was found on Tuesday (31) on the access road to the Arariboia Indigenous Territory, near his village Zutiwa, in the municipality of Arame, Maranhão state.
Zezico Rodrigues is the fifth indigenous Guajajara murdered in the past four months. A great leader, he was known for being a combative and courageous person in the fight for the rights of indigenous peoples and for his own Guajajara people, as well. Zezico was a teacher and director of the Indigenous School Education Center of Azuru, in the Zutiwa village, and was recently elected coordinator of COCALITIA (Commission of Chiefs and Indigenous Leaders of Araribóia Indigenous Territory).
Crime is upon us whilst our efforts are turned the protection of indigenous peoples from the grave risks of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil. This fact at hand highlights the worsening on violence and vulnerability of indigenous peoples have been facing, especially the leaders who fight to defend their territories against invaders and constantly denounce the violations committed against their people and the forest.
It is regrettable that the National Indigenous Foundation – Funai, recklessly, had released information that aims to relate the murder of Zezico with internal conflicts of the Guajajara people. We strongly reject this publication, which shows disregard for the history of threats and vilifies Zezico’s memory.
We demand that the Brazilian Federal Police put forth a serious investigation and that this brutal murder in the Araribóia Territory be elucidated. We from APIB show solidarity with Zezico’s family and friends, and with all the Guajajara people in this moment of mourning. We will keep on fighting so that no one more drop of indigenous blood is spilled! #JusticeForZezico
22/Mar/2020
We are living in critical times
Humankind will face its worst period since World War II. Epidemics are terrible for any society, but we know that for indigenous peoples the impact is even greater. Influenza, smallpox and measles were some of the diseases brought to our territories by non-indigenous people, and slaughtered many of our ancestors.
Coronavirus is another threat. With the fast worldwide spread of the pandemic, it is urgent that we focus our attention on indigenous peoples. The effects on us can be can be devastating! Our communal way of live could enable the fast spread of the virus in our territories if any of us get infected.
Donate now to APIB – Coalition of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, with the collected amount we will be able to buy food, medicine and hygiene material for our villages.
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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.
14/Dec/2019
Photo: Mídia NINJA
Another Guajajara was murdered. Erisvan Soares Guajajara was 15 years old. Son of Luécia Guajajara and Luzinho Guajajara, he was murdered in Amarante where Atibóia indigenous land is located.
The impunity keeps on runnig over many lives and racist speeches on courts keeps generating new victims.
Besides using national force as an emergencial measure, urgently of accurate public policys to access this persecution is needed. We urge for proper public policies and punishment to the deforesters, land grabbers, gold miners and to all kinds of criminials who now feel empowered to invade our territories, lands of our own by right, assured by the Federal Constitution.
We need efficient policys for inspection and the fortification of Indigenists Bodies on the contrary of this set of measurements that awards instead the invasors and land grabbers as the Provisional Measure, which is about landholding regularization in the country – published on the last 10th, or yet this set of measures which dismantles the Indigenists’ and environmentals’ organs.
We need health care policies for the ills and to prize scientific knowledge, our traditions and our tradicional knowledges. We need a singular education for the young people, children, sons and daughters, nephews and grandchildren, more Indigenous schools in our villages. We need investments in PNGATI (National Policy on Environmental and Territorial Management of Indigenous Land) and in policies developed under leaderships of our own Indigenous people.
We will stand fighting until the last Indegenous person stands, that’s how we are doing since 519 year ago. Our lives are public service for humanity. We are the ones who guarantee the air you breath, the water you drink and the balance of the planet’s climate. Without us there will not exist future for humankind. Therefore fighting for Indegenous lives is to fight for those who you love too. This fight is for all of us, it is a fight of gender, race, it’s an environmental fight, class struggles, for human rights for life.
09/Dec/2019
Earlier this year we held a national campaign called Red January. With the motto Indigenous Blood: Not a Single Drop More, we denounced the start of the offensive against indigenous peoples that began as soon as Jair Bolsonaro was inaugurated President. Immediately on taking office, he turned policies in support of Indigenous Peoples over to the worst agribusiness interests, as well as fanning the flames of hate speech and prejudice against Indigenous Peoples.
Last Saturday, December 7, another two Indigenous leaders were murdered: Firmino Silvino Prexede Guajajara, Chief of Silvino Village (Cana Brava Indigenous Land), and Raimundo Guajajara, Chief of Descendência Severino Village (Lagoa Comprida Indigenous Land), both in Maranhão state – where just 35 days ago the Forest Guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara was also killed.
These crimes reflect the escalation of hate and barbarism inflamed by Jair Bolsonaro’s government, which is attacking us daily, denying our right to exist and promoting the historical illness of racism, which Brazil still suffers from.
We are adrift without protection from the State, which is not fulfilling its constitutional duties. The current administration is acting outside the law, criminal in its political practice and is operating in a genocidal way, seeking to expel us from our territories, killing our culture, making our roots bleed.
The tension, persecution and lack of safety felt by Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples is increasing. We are being attacked, wiped out and criminalized. An attack on Indigenous life is an attack against humanity, as we Indigenous Peoples of the world defend 82% of global biodiversity. In Brazil, we are almost a million Indigenous People. We protect 13% of Brazilian ecosystems. We are in the whole country. We are among the planet’s richest cultures, represented by 305 peoples and 274 languages, and over 180 cases of peoples in voluntary isolation.
Much is said about fighting climate change, but it must be understood that our survival will guarantee the preservation of what is most important to the future of humanity. Mother Earth cannot handle another 50 years of the current predatory economic model. We know that we are in danger and that there is no more time.
We demand Justice, and that measures are taken immediately! We demand that the government authorities investigate the facts and punish the criminals who perpetrated these murders strictly, so that the feeling of impunity doesn’t motivate more criminal actions against our people, brutally culling Indigenous lives.
Here at COP25, where we’re participating with a delegation of over 20 Indigenous People from across Brazil, we demand that Indigenous Peoples’ rights are respected in fully implementing the Paris Climate Accord.
To our friends and allies from civil society around the world, we also ask for help. This will be Red December! We call for a global mobilization. Our people in Maranhão state occupied BR 216 Highway, seeking justice for all of the murders, and we need everybody to join the fight, make it a collective struggle.
This will be the Red December for Indigenous Peoples and peoples of the planet, and our right to exist. Indigenous Blood: Not a Single Drop More!
05/Dec/2019
The indigenous women from the most diverse peoples of Brazil make a call for everybody to join in this great global action for climate and life on the planet. On this Friday, December 6th, social movements, activists, environmentalists, young people and all those who understand the climate emergency will march together at the Climate March that takes place during COP 25, in Madrid . Take part at it too, organize your collectives, call friends, activists and social movements to speak up wherever you are on Friday.
Greed is killing our forests, our woods, our rivers; attacking our right of being and existing in our diversity. The world needs other models of development, we have to put a stop on this killing! Indigenous women are at the forefront of this struggle for the defense of mother earth and the preservation of their traditional ways of life! Join us!
12/Aug/2019
By Luma Lessa for Collaborative Coverage of the Indigenous Women’s March (translated by Daiara Tukano
Sunday (08/11) dawned with the cultural presentations of women’s delegations from over 100 indigenous peoples from all over Brazil. Then about 1,500 indigenous women gathered for the activities of the Indigenous Women National Forum. Sonia Guajajara opened the event by inviting women from 21 states to talk about the theme: “Territory: our body, our spirit.” The discussions addressed the building of concrete demands and strategies of indigenous women for their empowerment, the violation of health, education and security rights, the right to land and resumption processes, and the occupation of indigenous women in politics.
In the afternoon, tables brought guests to discuss networking between movements. Joenia Wapichana, Federal Deputy (Rede-RR), indigenous women from Latin America, indigenous representatives from Peru and Ecuador, and a representative of UN Women Brazil attended the meeting. There was also the roundtable for National Alliances, which was attended by representatives of the Brazilian Articulation of Indigenous Peoples (APIB), the March of Daisies, Black Women, Brazilian Women’s Articulation (AMB) and the National Coordination of Quilombola Rural Black Communities (CONAQ).
In Monday (12/08) the focus is the “Indigenous Women in Defense of Indigenous Health SASI-SUS” Act. The march left the headquarters of the camp in Funarte towards the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health (Sesai). The first walk of the 1st Indigenous Women March took to the streets of Brasilia to protest the end of The indigenous Health System municipalization and the immediate departure of Silvia Nobre, current coordinator of the SESAI. The arrival at the secretariat faced the attempt of the Military Police to block the entrance of the indigenous leaders to the building. However, the women managed to enter and occupy the space. The day ends with the participation of a women’s delegation in the hearing, scheduled to start at 17h, in the Supreme Court (STF).
The walk continues tomorrow, August 13th, at 7:00 am with the departure from the Indigenous Women’s March from the main camp at FUNARTE towards the Esplanade of Ministries. The March joins the National Act Against Dismantling of Public Education, scheduled for 9am. At the same time will take place the Solemn Chamber of Deputies with the Daisies. In the afternoon, there are workshops and activities with the Daisies in the City Park, followed by the opening of the Daisy March at 19h in the same place.
The Indigenous Women March ends on Wednesday (14/08), joining forces with the March of Daisies in a joint walk. The daisies and indigenous meeting will take place at Funarte. The expectation is about 100 thousand people for the March 13 and 14 August. The last activity of the day, scheduled for 2 pm, will be the Plenary for the approval of the Final Document with the theme “Watering Seeds: The Future of the Forum and the Indigenous Women March”. In the end, delegations return to their places of origin renewed with the forces and strategies shared between indigenous women of diverse peoples and with peasant women in these intense days of mobilizing the largest female action in Latin America.
12/Aug/2019
By Andressa Santa Cruz, and free translation by Mahe Maia, for Collaborative Coverage of the Indigenous Women’s March
Hundreds of indigenous women occupied the building of the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health (SESAI) today in Brasilia, calling for an end to the dismantling of indigenous health and the immediate departure of coordinator Silvia Nobre Wajãpi who declined to meet with the leaders and left the building under crowd boos. “Silvia does not represent the majority of indigenous women. We came here to talk and were not received. This shows the contradiction.”says Celia Xakriaba.
Since Silvia Nobre was designated by the current government in April, indigenous health policies have been weakened. The delay to transfer funds, the dismantling of the“More Doctors”Program, and the termination of the management team, impacted the villages since the first month, when indigenous across the country began to mobilize against the scrapping. In July, 115 indigenous camped in the SESAI building for two weeks and only left on the 22nd, after a meeting mediated by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and Funai, in Brasilia, when the Ministry of Health and SESAI signed an Adjustment Agreement of Conduct (TAC) committing to accomplish the demands.
For Nyg Kaigang, from the south of the country, one of the objectives is the revitalization of the organ, “we will strive to ensure a specific health care based on the alignment of knowledge of traditional medicine, the way we think about the healing of our bodies”.
Check the moment of entry into the building:
Indigenous women occupy Sesai building demanding the immediate departure of coordinator Silvia Nobre. Photo: Douglas Freitas
Indigenous women occupy corridors and rooms of Sesai – Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health in Brasilia. Photo: Douglas Freitas / Collaborative Coverage
Indigenous women occupy Sesai building demanding the immediate departure of coordinator Silvia Nobre. Photo: Kamikia Kisedje / Collaborative Coverage
Indigenous women occupy corridors and rooms of Sesai – Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health in Brasilia. Photo: Lia Biachini / Collaborative Coverage
Indigenous women occupy Sesai building demanding the immediate departure of coordinator Silvia Nobre. Photo: Kamikia Kisedje / Collaborative Coverage
Indigenous women occupy Sesai building demanding the immediate departure of coordinator Silvia Nobre. Photo: Kamikia Kisedje / Collaborative Coverage
Indigenous women occupy Sesai building demanding the immediate departure of coordinator Silvia Nobre. Photo: Daniela Huberty / Collaborative Coverage
