Brazil should be proud of its indigenous peoples, says secretary

“There are more than 305 indigenous peoples, speaking 274 different languages. It is a diversity that this country should be proud of”. This is how Ceiça Pitaguary, Secretary for Indigenous Environmental and Territorial Management at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, defines the importance of traditional communities and the urgent need to resume the rights and protection of these peoples. “There is no country in the world with more indigenous peoples than Brazil. The Brazilian people seem to feel ashamed, afraid of the indigenous peoples, who have been here for centuries, making their contribution to the protection of biodiversity, which belongs to everyone”, completed Ceiça, a well-known leader in the conservation of indigenous traditions in Ceará. Before taking office, the pedagogue acted as articulator of the Special Coordination of Public Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality (Ceppir) in the state of Ceará, between 2019 and 2022, and, in 2021, joined the Voz das Mulheres Indígenas, an initiative of the Organization of the United Nations. Ceiça Pitaguary, secretary of Indigenous Environmental and Territorial Management Photo: Divulgaçāo Upon taking office, the secretary says she found a dismantling of indigenous policy: without resources, with paralyzed land demarcation processes, lack of civil servants and abandonment of indigenous communities. “It was a scorched earth scenario, as if there had been a war. In the country, this reflection of scorched earth reflects more strongly within indigenous territories. The ministry finds an indigenist policy totally paralyzed. Funai was made unfeasible, the work of technicians made unfeasible due to an ideological bias of the previous government, which equipped Funai units with military personnel. From there, we have an idea of ​​what the civil servants went through and the indigenous peoples and village communities suffered at the end, since the policies did not reach within the territories, ”she said in an interview with Agência Brasil. Regularization of territories In view of the diagnosis, Ceiça Pitaguary points out that the priority is to resume the demarcation and management of indigenous lands, one of the main bottlenecks of the indigenous policy. In the folder, the secretary said that the management plans will be made respecting the traditions and wishes of the people. “The priority is to unlock the identification reports of the demarcation works, and, consequently, in the background, to manage these territories. From the moment the territory is demarcated, handed over to the indigenous community, there must be management of this territory. This management must be based on what these peoples are secularly accustomed to doing. All peoples have their own way of organizing and managing this territory. The peoples know the land where they are planted, where they live and the preservation areas”, she said. According to the secretary, ministry teams will visit the villages to talk to leaders about management plans, in addition to holding assemblies. This Thursday (19), when the National Day of Indigenous Peoples is celebrated for the first time, the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) announced the creation and recomposition of six technical groups, which will be responsible for analyzing requests for federal recognition of traditional areas in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rio Grande do Sul and Rondônia. The president of Funai, Joenia Wapichana, also said that 14 processes for indigenous lands have already been forwarded to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for ratification. “Funai is resuming its constitutional activities so that indigenous peoples have their rights implemented and exercised,” she said in an interview with the program A Voz do Brasil. President of Funai, Joenia Wapichana, participates in the program A Voz do Brasil – Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil Protection of territories In the Guarani village Limeira, in Chapecó (SC), Eunice Kerexu spent her childhood surrounded by her parents and grandparents on the riverbank and lived with Guarani and Kaingang villages in Santa Catarina and Paraná. In her career, the environmental manager and educator led the campaign for the recognition of the Morro dos Cavalos Indigenous Land, in Palhoça (SC), for which the Guarani have been awaiting approval since 2008, and is one of the coordinators of the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil. In charge of the Environmental and Territorial Rights Secretariat of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, Eunice Kerexu wants people to live in peace on their lands, without threats from mining and trafficking. “As a leader, as an indigenous person and now as a government, we see both in the lands that are demarcated, homologated, and in those that are in the process of [de demarcação e homologação], the issue of territorial protection, including with isolated and recently contacted peoples”. According to her, with the current shortage of civil servants at Funai, the ministry has sought partnerships with other institutions to guarantee the protection of indigenous lands. Another measure is the elaboration of actions with other ministries focused on the preservation of territories.

Agência Brasil