Free Land Camp:  with a delay of two years, Indigenous Policy Committee is set up

 

“The Free Land Camp has become a big Indigenous Assembly.” This was the conclusion of Uilton Tuxá, from the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of the Northeast, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, Apoinme, one of the 13 organizations that four years ago organized the largest demonstration of the national indigenous movement – the Free Land Camp, at Esplanada dos Ministérios (the square where all federal departments are located in Brasília). When he spoke about indigenous assemblies, Uilton recalled the large meetings that brought together indigenous people from all over the country in 1970s and laid the foundations for the movement to ensure the rights of these peoples in the Federal Constitution back in the 1980s. For defending the assurance and preservation of these rights, indigenous leaders continue to travel for hundreds of kilometers to camp at the Esplanada dos Ministérios square. But the camp is also a moment for indigenous people to get together, hold rituals, and exchange experiences. (read more – in Portuguese)

 

This year, of the four days of the camp, two and a half were devoted to debates between the indigenous people and indigenous entities gathered at the Forum in Defense of Indigenous Rights, which is sponsoring the meeting. The meetings led to proposals to be used as inputs for defining priorities for actions of the movement, as set out in the final document of the meeting (read here). The priorities were divided into demarcation, protection, management and sustainability of indigenous lands, impacts of the Growth Acceleration Program, as a result of infrastructure projects to be implemented in indigenous lands, health care, education, indigenous law, participation and social control. 

 

Defining positions and issues to be addressed by the movement has become more important, since the federal administration is in the process of setting up the National Indigenous Policy Committee (CNPI). The Committee was a proposal submitted by the Free Land Camp two years ago and it may constitute an important step toward changing the indigenous policy in the Country. The purpose of the committee is making sure that all lines and priorities for public actions designed for indigenous peoples are defined with the actual participation of indigenous peoples and not by non-indigenous people any longer. (read more)

 

The 20 indigenous leaders appointed to the committee (see full list here) held a meeting with president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The president took advantage of the presence of over 1,000 indigenous people from one hundred communities from all over all Brazil to make the measure official. The Committee is chaired by the president of Funai and made up of representatives of two indigenous organizations and 22 representatives of federal departments dealing with policies for indigenous peoples.

In his speech, president Lula promised that indigenous peoples will receive a better treatment from his administration. “We have to take advantage of my second term in office to do the things that we could not do during my first term.” The worker’s party leader admitted that the lack of land for indigenous people has affected the livelihood of many indigenous communities and not enough has been made so far to ensure their quality of life. He said that the committee (CNPI) will serve not only to approve proposals of the federal administration, but also to demand measures to ensure indigenous rights, and he drew attention to the responsibility of the leaders who will participate in its processes for defining policies designed for indigenous communities.

Lands are declared as indigenous land and homologated

Lula also signed decrees officially confirming the bounds of three indigenous lands (TIs) and ratifying the bounds of three other ones, totaling 959.4 thousand hectares in new territories in the states of Pará, Amazonas, Santa Catarina, and Paraná.

Also yesterday, rulings were signed declaring seven other lands as indigenous lands: Cachoeirinha (Terena, state of Mato Grosso do Sul), Guarani de Araça’I (state of Santa Catarina), Toldo Imbu and Toldo Pinhal (Kaingang – state of Santa Catarina), Riozinho do Alto Envira (state of Acre) of the Ashaninka people and isolated indigenous people – totaling 260,970 hectares; revisions and bounds were also declared for the Xapecó, areas A and B (Kaingang – state of Santa Catarina) and Yvyporã Laranjinha (Guarani – state of Paraná) lands.

 

Dialogue with society

Last Tuesday in the afternoon, the camped indigenous leaders staged a march in Brasília in remembrance of the 10 years that have gone by since Galdino Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe was burned alive in Brasilia, in 1997 – and to denounce the violence indigenous people still suffer in Brazil. In 2006 alone, 41 indigenous people were killed: 21 of them were murdered in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the state where one indigenous person died every week last year in cases of murder, suicide, and runovers. 

 

They walked from the Ministry of Justice to the Compromisso Square in the Asa Sul neighborhood in Brasília, where a monument was built to pay homage to Galdino. After holding a shamanic ritual, the indigenous people painted the sculpture, which was full of vulgar graffiti.

 

Dialogue with public authorities

Although the group was received by president Lula at the Planalto Palace, the leaders resented the fact that they were not granted a hearing with the president in which indigenous peoples could present their proposals.

 

On April 19, a public hearing on indigenous rights was also held at the Federal Senate. The coordinator of the Coordinating Board of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon Region (Coiab), Jecinaldo Cabral, protested against bills and proposals for constitutional amendments which run counter to indigenous rights. Although he was one of the speakers at the hearing, he sat on the floor. And he justified his gesture: “The Senate does not treat indigenous peoples with the seriousness they deserve.”

 

In relation to bills prepared by the Legislative Branch, the camped indigenous people insist that topics related to indigenous peoples should be jointly and consistently addressed at the National Congress. The final document of the meeting reads as follows: “We are against any change in our rights ensured in the Constitution and we want all topics within our interest to be addressed in the Statute of Indigenous Peoples and not in a fragmented way in isolated bills, such as, for example, the one on mineral exploitation rights in indigenous lands. For this reason, we think that the Government should not propose any specific bill on this issue.”

 

The last hearing of the camp was with justice Ellen Gracie, chief justice of the Supreme Court. Leaders from 14 peoples thanked Gracie for giving priority to proceedings involving indigenous people as she has pledged to do in the Indigenous April of 2006. The leaders stressed the importance of judging cases related to the Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe land in the state of Bahia, to the Potiguara (state of Paraíba) and to the Guarani Kaiowá (state of Mato Grosso do Sul). “We have already dealt with part of the problem. The Supreme Court is setting an example to be followed by other courts,” the justice said. 

 

(from the camp’s communication team)

 

Brasília, April 20, 2007