"We walk through the world telling of our rights, our feelings and our pain" (Anastasio Kiaiowá Guarani)

By Egon Heck
Oslo, Norway

When the delegation in support of the Guarani People, together with Anastácio Kaiowá Guarani embarked on a two week marathon of several European countries, we knew we would face a season of tremendous cold and great warmth and solidarity with the Guarani Kaiowá of Mato Grosso do Sul, in the fight for their rights.

Jônia Rodrigues brought the special concern of the NGO For the Right to Food (FIAN), which combines action in the area of food security with the difficult situation of survival and starvation, because there are innumerable families and Guarani communities in the confinements and encampments on the edges of roads in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul

Verena Glass, of Reporter of Brazil, brought a lot of information and data about the grave consequences of the advance of soy and sugar cane of the  agribusiness in Mato Grosso do Sul.  Agrofuels directly impact the territory of the indigenous Guarani people, as the identification of their ancestral lands has not been completed.

Egon Heck, a missionary of the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) in Mato Grosso do Sul, has been journaling his accompaniment of the struggle for land and the extreme violence to which the Guarani communities are subjected. Cimi has been trying to give visibility to this reality and to achieve solidarity with the struggles of this people.

Snow, yerba mate and solidarity
Ten thousand kilometers from his Guarani homeland, Anastácio, braving the cold of ten degrees below zero, comments, without losing his good humor: "I think Yvy Marë-ÿ  (the land without evils) is not here. It cannot be so cold. I’ll keep looking  …".

We discovered that for facing the cold nothing is better than an ancient Guarani habit from well before the invasion – chimarrão (sharing a good hot herbal mate tea). And off we went to the beautiful white park and castle of the Queen of Norway. All very simple and modest, as everything has to be here, they explain to us. The forest stands naked in the snow. The tall trees soaring, only trunks and branches, pointing to the sky without sun, where the night arrives at four in the afternoon and daylight does not arrive until eight in the morning. And there are days of the year when daylight is indistinguishable from the darkness of night, and there is no dawn.

This is also a land of indigenous peoples. The Sami, a native people living in the northern part of the country, where the temperature most of the year is 30 degrees below zero, fight impressively, for their rights in the Arctiv area where they live, within the national states – Norway Finland, Sweden and Russia. Since the 1970s they have actively participated in the process of struggle and organization of the global indigenous movement. They are known as the white indigenous, standing out in the international indigenous forums with their showy costumes. They have their own Parliament in each of the four nation states of which they are part. There are approximately 100,000 people. Anastácio observes the similarities with the Guarani whose communities are also spread over four countries in South America.

A radio interview is also conducted with Anastácio Kaiowá for the Sami radio. They are very interested in knowing and publicizing the reality and struggle of their brethren on the American continent of Abya Yala.

The Embassy of Brazil in Oslo, Norway
Our first activity on the long path of solidarity with the Guarani people and their struggles was the delivery of an enormous canvas of two square meters on which the face of a Guarani mother with a child is stamped, and some of the challenges and beauties of the country, with Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil’s embassy in Norway. What most calls attention on the picture are 1265 signatures in large beans, in the form of a tree around the picture. Together with the canvas a document was delivered, signed by FIAN Norway, with several entities linked to human rights and environmental issues. About the picture is written "The earth is life and blood, without it we do not live". Certainly the great and beautiful picture will have a prominent place in the embassy environment may help the Guarani people secure a little respect and support in the quest for their rights.

What surprised us was the seriousness with which the Itamarati prepares and equips its ambassadors for focusing on the issues of the Guarani territories, the advance of agrofuels, ethanol and large monocultures in these lands … maps, texts, updated information on the process of identification of the lands and the violence. Anastácio, somewhat skeptical, said he had met  four times with President Lula, but that this did nothing to tear down the barriers imposed by the anti-indigenous of Mato Grosso do Sul and the demarcation of the lands of his people being made a reality.

Discussing strategies of the peoples – Yvy Marë-ÿ [the land without evils], Living Well, or Bien Vivir as it is known in Latin America, we wanted to call attention to the changes that are necessary in the agricultural production policy, together with changes in the land tenure structure, through recognition of collective lands like those of the indigenous peoples and quilombolas, land reform from a new territorial vision and relationship with mother earth, as well as the recognition and respect for units of nature reservation.

At the Norwegian Ministries of Environment and Foreign Affairs
In these two spaces we talked about the concerns that the delegation for the rights of the Guarani People came to discuss and raise awareness in Europe. We call attention to the current production model and its grave impact on the regional population, especially the indigenous peoples and the environment. Norway has made substantial contributions to the question of environmental preservation, planning the allocation of one billion dollars to a fund for protecting the Amazon.

We further discuss the gravity of the situation in which the Guarani Kaiowá live, highlighting some situations that demand immediate responses, like that faced by the communities Y Po’i and Kurusu Ambá , among others. But most urgent and pressing is the completion of the work in identification of all the Guarani lands, the publication of the reports and subsequent steps of demarcation and regularization of these lands.

In our dialogues with the departments of the Norwegian government, we also highlighted the role of the judiciary that has increasingly made decisions in opposition to constitutional rights and international legislation regarding the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands.

We also had a significant discussion with representatives of nongovernmental organizations working in the area of human rights, environmental issues and the right to adequate food. FIAN Norway, which articulated this debate has also stood in solidarity with the Guarani cause, enabling this series of contacts and discussions that will certainly amplify solidarity with the cause of the Great Guarani People.

It is all worth it, to face the cold and the snow for this noble cause. We will continue in our marathon of solidarity with the Guarani people.

 

For further reading: "To the Guarani Western life is meaningless"