INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN THE STATE OF BAHIA GET ORGANIZED TO INTERVENE IN EDUCATIONAL POLICIES

 

The school year of 2005 only began one week ago in Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe villages mainly because of problems to transport the students from the villages to the schools. Faced with a scenario of little respect for the right to a differentiated education, considering that no indigenous teachers were hired to work in their schools, payments are delayed, and a specific and differentiated curriculum has not been truly accepted yet, the Pataxó, Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe and Tupinambá de Olivença indigenous peoples who live in the south and extreme south regions of the state of Bahia organized themselves to strengthen their actions to ensure their educational rights as indigenous people.

 

They have been discussing the adoption of a state-level educational policy for indigenous schools in a State Forum for Indigenous Education, a non-official assembly which brings together indigenous people, supporters of the indigenous cause, and representatives of universities and of the State Education Secretariat for discussing education-related matters. They want an indigenous State Educational Council to be set up with powers to deliberate on indigenous education policies. “In practice, despite the existence of the Forum and the fact that it is provided for in the law, the state government does not accept a differentiated education for indigenous people. We had to fight a lot to include a subject on the geography of our region, which we call ethno-geography, in the curriculum of our schools,” explains Agnaldo Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe as an example.

 

Indigenous leaders also want indigenous schools to be managed by the state government, since when they are managed by municipal governments, as is the case now, they are more susceptible to local political whims.

 

They also want a higher education course specifically designed for indigenous people. The first course would be aimed at training teachers and would include presential classes and field activities in indigenous lands, “so that out relatives don’t have to leave their villages,” says Agnaldo. According to him, the Ministry of Education, the State University of Bahia and supporting organizations have been holding meetings to promote this project.

 

Early this week, an association was created which includes representatives of indigenous teachers, indigenous leaders, indigenous parents and indigenous students belonging to three peoples. “We will now involve all the community in the discussion of educational issues. If we deal with education as if the school were separated from the community, we become weaker when we have to talk to authorities of the state government. When we have these conversations now, our parents, teachers, and students will take part in them,” explains Agnaldo Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe. The association is called Opahãba – Organization of the Pataxó, Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe and Tupinambá Indigenous Peoples for Indigenous Education.

 

Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe also mobilize themselves to press for a better health care for indigenous people

 

In the land of the Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe people, which is located in the south region of the state of Bahia, a health station was set up by the National Health Foundation (Funasa). Up to this week, the station was not being very much used. The team which was appointed to provide health care to the indigenous people was not in the village and was working in Pau Brasil, a municipality located five kilometers away from the indigenous land.

 

Reacting to the lack of assistance and to problems in the distribution of medicines in their villages, the Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe decided on Monday (the 4th) to transfer materials from the health station located in that municipality to the one located in their village. “We decided to bring all the materials (medicines and furniture and equipment items) to our village, which has a health station that remains closed most of the time [instead of open] because the staff which should be providing health care in it during the working hours defined for each staff member prefer to stay in Pau Brasil instead of working in our community,” the indigenous people explained.

 

Besides complaining that the health care is poor and that no medicines for continuous use by people with high blood pressure and diabetes are being distributed, the indigenous people also complain that it is very difficult for them to take laboratorial and pre-natal tests.

 

They had a meeting with Funasa representatives in April 2004 in which the agency took on the commitment to establish regular working hours for the health care teams, to provide health care services in the villages, to correct the situation of the distribution of medicines, and to buy vehicles to transport patients and the health care teams to where they might need to go. In February 2005 a new meeting was held in which the same requests were made. A new meeting is scheduled to be held tomorrow, the 8th, with the director of Funasa in Brasília.

 

The Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe also say that “Funasa has not been inspecting” the work of the health care agents hired through the municipalities. “The service agreement was being observed appropriately, but this year the new mayor has not been paying the salaries of the health care team. And they fired indigenous health care agents,” reported chief Gerson Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe.

 

Many of the complaints against the current health care model applied to indigenous people, which is based on service agreements with city halls, stem from constant problems in the use of the funds earmarked for the scheme, which are similar to the ones experienced in the area of indigenous education (see text above).

 

Social Control

 

The indigenous people also say that Funasa has not been supporting the holding of meetings of the Local Health Care Council and that many meetings of this council were called off. “The last meeting was held two years ago,” says Gerson Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe.

 

The Local Council is the local social control body for health care actions for indigenous people according to the Brazilian law. It is made up of representatives of indigenous communities, including traditional leaders, chiefs, and shamans who are chosen by members of the communities.

 

WOMEN CRITICIZE INDIGENOUS POLICY

 

The Organization of Indigenous Women of Roraima (Omir) sent a document to president Lula, to the ministry of Justice, and to the Human Rights Secretariat on April 4 complaining that no indigenous policy has been defined by the government so far and that it is taking too long for vital issues for indigenous people to be addressed, such as the recognition of their lands, particularly the official confirmation of the bounds of the Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous land.  The document was drafted during a meeting held on April 2 and 3 which was attended by about 40 female leaders from all regions of the state.

 

Outraged, the women denounced the impunity and neglect of authorities in relation to acts of violence against indigenous communities located in the Jawari, Homologação and Brilho do Sol lands in November 2004, when 37 houses were destroyed and a Macuxi indigenous person was shot.

 

The women of Roraima decided to join the “Indigenous April movement” promoted by the Forum in Defense of Indigenous Rights, which will set up a camp at Esplanada dos Ministérios (the square in Brasília where all ministries of the federal administration are located) to protest against the neglect of the Lula administration in relation to ethnic groups.

 

The letter sent by Omir criticizes Constitutional Amendment Bill 38/1999 proposed by Senator Mozarildo Cavalcante (Brazilian Labor Party/state of Roraima), which aims to reduce by half all indigenous lands and conservation units in all states and also condition the official recognition of bounds of indigenous lands to the approval of the National Congress.

 

In the protest demonstration, the indigenous people will demand respect for Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization and reject any possibility of negotiating indigenous rights provided for in the Brazilian Constitution. “We want to make it perfectly clear that OUR RIGHT TO OUR LANDS IS NOT NEGOTIABLE and that no government has the authority to negotiate the rights of any indigenous people. RIGHTS ARE HERE TO BE RESPECTED AND ENFORCED. Therefore, we want the law to be enforced and the BOUNDS OF THE RAPOSA/SERRA DO SOL INDIGENOUS LAND TO BE OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED as determined in Administrative Ruling 820/98-MJ,” they say.

 

Brasília, 7 April 2005.

 

Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council