Circa 500 persons, indigenous leaders from all over Brazil and especially from Mato Grosso do Sul, participated, on April 16 2009, in a large meeting of the Terena people and Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (APIB). “Our spirit of struggle and resistance is the only way to face the ranchers, gunmen and police, because the State does not protect the people.”

 

Day of struggle

The meeting happened in the indigenous village “Mãe Terra” (Mother Earth) in the indigenous area Cachoeirinha, located in the municipality of Miranda, in Mato Grosso do Sul. The meeting was at the occasion of the Day of the Indian, on April 19, which in Mato Grosso do Sul was reinterpreted as “a day of struggle” for the indigenous population in contrast to the neat traditional schedule of ‘cultural presentations’ of the native peoples, as the state, state governments and municipalities like to have it.

 

War dance

There certainly were, however, cultural manifestations. Most important of which was the “dance of war”, marking the whole event. This dance embraced both the valuing of indigenous culture as a manifestation of ancestral life – also within the struggle for land – as well as dance as a symbol of resistance and of hope of victory. Victory by “the warrior peoples”, who have withstood 500 years of oppression.

 

Zero tolerance

Ilton Tuchá, coordinator of the Articulção dos Povos Indígenas do Nordeste, of Minas Gerais and of Espírito Santo (APOINME) stated that “the spirit of struggle and resistance that we have is the only way of facing the ranchers, gunmen and police, because the State does not respect the legislation that protects the peoples”. He also said that today the tolerance of the indigenous peoples “is zero” in the face of discourses that are “mendacious and shameful”.

Certâ Kaingang, of the Articulação dos Povos Indigenas do Sul (ARPINSUL) pointed out that “our blood that moistened our land will be valued only as it guarantees us future life for our children”. At another point in his speech he also pointed out that, “patience is exhausted because the Brazilian state threw the Federal Constitution in the trash”. Cretâ announced the message of solidarity to the gathering of the Coordinação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia (COAIB), with the indigenous peoples of Mato Grosso do Sul.

 

Taste of defeat

Another main topic, was the recent ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court (STF) of the Raposa Serra do Sol case. The leaders present agreed that the judgment was an “attempt against the Federal Constitution”, or, in other words, “the Brazilian state shredded the Federal Constitution”. Because, it allows the state to interfere in the indigenous areas, whereas the Constitution clearly describes this as inalienable right of the indigenous peoples.  For the majority of the indigenous peoples of Brazil it was “a victory with the taste of defeat”. They concurred that the 19 conditions of the judgment of Raposa Serra do Sol will gravely injure the revindications of land demarcation in the other states of Brazil. Especially where the reality of the land distribution is absolutely different.

 

As the Xavante leader Arparidi Loptiro, of the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Cerrado (ARPICE), expressed: “with the 19 conditions, the STF and the Brazilian State declared war on the indigenous of the entire country. Nevertheless, we are going to succeed with our rituals, with our relatives painted for the struggle and we are going to move forward in the politicization, with the warrior spirit, to regain our lands”.

 

Ramon Vieira, in the name of the Articuação dos Povos Indígenas do Pantanal (ARPINPAM) underlined the importance of the unity that recently grew among the indigenous peoples of Brazil to fight for the rights of the indigenous populations, especially in Mato Grosso do Sul, where the challenges are very great and the needs are urgent, especially for demarcation of land for the Guarani and Terena.

 

Leia Aquino, representing the Movimento Kaiowá-Guarani, together with Eliseu Lopez and Elda Vasquez, urged for solidarity in the defense of land rights, life and the future of the communities of Mato Grosso do Sul. These communities are threatened by an ongoing genocide and extinction by the expansion of the agricultural sector, by the violence and war declared against them by representatives of ruralist organizations and by the governor of the state, André Puccinelli. Elizeu Lopez indicated that agribusiness in MS is only capable of imagining indians “confined and in reserves and our lands abandoned and liberated for soy and cane”.

 

Lindomar Ferreira and Sacarias Rodriguez, leaders of the hosting village of Mãe Terra, stated that they are not going to renounce to the revindication of 33,000 hectares of land for which they have been struggling for 26 years. They await with hope the confirmation of their traditional land that has already been demarcated, but is “held hostage by the state burocracy, by the evictions and threats by ranchers.”

 

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