Categoria: Indigenous

Moments before the marriage the young girl Deí is decorated with bracelets and necklaces

Jaru-RO – The Indians of the race Uru-I-Wau-Wau met on the 10th, 11th and 12th of May, to participate in two parties of the young girl. The ceremonial happens whenever an Indian girl, age between 10 and 13 years, leaves the childhood to become an adult. Most of the time the girl leaves the party already married.

The girl starts to stay most of the time in the hut, at least one week before the party, in this period she receives the parents’ orientations on the new phase of her life. One day before, the mother takes her a bath with babassu oil, in purification sign. The preparations to the party also begin in the previous day, when the Indians of the village and their guests leave to look for hunt, fish, cassava, chestnut and firewood.

At 3 o’clock in the morning everybody who is in the village are called to help to peel chestnuts. At 6 o’clock, the parents decorate the girl with bracelets and necklaces and they sing for her, guiding her about her new responsibilities. When there is not marriage, the mother takes the girl another bath and soon she begins to work, preparing the food for the party.

Surprise marriage

According to the oldest Indians of the village, who decides on the marriages are the youths’ parents. The fiancé can be chosen in advance or moments before the marriage.

The young girl’s party Deí, 11 years old, of the Village Alto Jaru, got married at the end. She and the youth Buri were informed that would get married in the moment of the ceremony. In silence they both accepted the relatives’ decision and accomplished the matrimonial rituals.

Lying and covered in the hammock, Deí and Buri heard the advices of the oldest, who guided them about the responsibilities of the marriage. Then they were authorized to leave the hut. She with a bucket in hand and he with arrows. Since then the party went on, while Deí assumed a married woman’s duties and started to cook for the relatives and guests.

Cultural valorization

The members of the Association of Defense Ethno-ambient kanindé, highlighted the importance of the party for the cultural valorization of the People Uru-I-Wau-Wau. “We are here as guests to show that we agree with those manifestations and that it is important not only for them, but also for us, that are from another culture “, said the historiographer Ivaneide Bandeira Cardoso.

According to anthropologist, Samuel Cruz the Uru-I-Wau-Wau stopped doing their cultural manifestations for a great time, but now they are retaking this practice, valuing their own culture. “That will certainty have reflexes in their relationship with the territory”, he said. Samuel also highlighted the importance of the party in the sense of gathering the residents of the neighboring villages, strengthening the relationships.

Cacoal/RO – Indians of 23 races liberated, at the 21 hours yesterday, the BR 364. They have had the highway closed for 3 days, in the space that ties from Pimenta Bueno to Cacoal town, in the State of Rondônia and they were there until having the warranty that their demands would be assisted. Among the natives’ main solicitations it was the regional coordinator of the National Foundation of the Indian discharge (Funai), Orlando Castro Ribeiro and the regional coordinator of the National Foundation of Health (Funasa), Josafá Piahy Marreiro.

The indigenous leaders participated in a meeting, yesterday afternoon, in Cacoal city hall, with the Mayoress Sueli Aragão, the senator Valdir Raupp and the federal deputy Marinha Raupp, all members of the PMDB party. The Indians demanded from the authorities the discharge of the regional coordinator of Funasa, Josafá Marreiro, because he had been indicated for the position by the supported of the party. After about 3 hours of negotiations, Sueli Aragão announced that she would have phoned Josafá Marreiro and he would have affirmed that if he was the reason for the movement, he would ask for the own discharge. The announcement was commemorated with palms by the Indians that decided, then, to liberate the highway.

Among the Indians that participated in the movement were the representatives of the races Cinta Larga, Surui, Apurinã, Terena, Tenharin, Kwazar, Sater Mawé, Munduruku, Mura, Mequéns, Apurinã of Amazonas, Parintintin, Aikaná, Kanoé, Wajurú, Orumaé, Orueu, Oroba and Orowin, besides other people of the State of Mato Grosso of the South and of Amazonas, that joined to the protest in solidarity to the ” relatives Indian “.

As the open letter directed to the Ministry of the Justice, the indigenous communities’ leaderships, would be indignant with the form that the regional executive administration of Funai of Cacoal would be treating the execution of the politics and of the appropriate resources to the Indians. For these reasons they would have unchained the movement in defense of their interests and constitutional rights. In the document, the leaderships pointed out that the movement would have the objective of calling Funai to the responsibility to stop to treat the resources destined to the Indians.

According to the cacique Marcelo Cinta Larga, for several times the leaderships tried to dialogue with the responsible people for Funai and for Funasa to find one solutions for the problems faced by the Indians, but they would not have been assisted. He pointed out that the way they found to call the government’s attention was closing the highway and he also affirmed that it would be closed while the demands were not assisted. “We want to solve our problem in a peaceful way, but we claimed that our people are respected”, he said.

Assisted demands
Besides have been assisted with the administrator’s of Funai change in Cacoal, Orlando Castro Silveira to Rômulo Siqueira and the discharge of regional coordinator of Funasa, Josafá Marreiro, the Indians demanded, among other things, the natives’ nomination for the leadership of all the subordinate indigenous for Cacoal post, an administrative audit in the group task Cinta Larga, the execution of the urgent plan to protect the indigenous land Cinta Larga and the extension of the same for all the indigenous lands under the jurisdiction of Funai/Cacoal and the elaboration of the plans of maintainable development and protection of all the indigenous lands.

Cacoal/RO – Suruí’s people history, from the time of the contact with the whites, to the current days, it has been portrayed in pictures, by the plastic artist Adlanes Cristóvão Suruí. With ability in the painting art in oil on screen, she is devoted mainly to show the primitive habits of the Indians. “In each picture I expose something unique of them, as the way of making ceramic”, she said.

Suruí’s people choice was not by chance. The wife of the leader Almir Suruí, Adlanes lives together with the indigenous habits for 14 years. ‘‘ I portray the Suruís, because they are people that I know “, she said.

The work of Adlanes pleases mainly who comes from outside. Exposed in the Non Organization Government (NOG) Kanidé, in the capital of the State, the pictures are mainly acquired for environmentalist and foreign researchers. “They like and take the pictures home “, Adlanes says.

In spite of the satisfaction for the approval of her work, Adlanes worries when seeing that it is further the possibility of

materialization of her project to gather a good number of pictures and to do a great exhibition. ” Here people don’t matter a lot, but outside the indigenous culture it is worth “, she said.

The historical registrations show that the Suruí people were contacted in 1969. At that time there was a population of approximately 5 thousand people. A measles epidemic appeared after the contact, it would have reduced them to 290. Today they would be about 1.100 people, residents in villages of Cacoal town.

Jarú/RO – The invaders are going farther in the Indigenous Land Uru-I-Wau-Wau. Besides removing the wood, in selective dropping, they are planting and creating cattle in the background of the villages. The Indians are revolted with the situation and they threaten to remove them from place by force, if the National Foundation of the Indian (Funai) and the Brazilian Institute of the environment (Ibama) don’t solve the problem.

With 1 million and 867 thousand hectares, the Indigenous Reservation of the Uru-I-Wau-Wau is the largest of the State of Rondônia and the third largest of the Country. Dispersed in small villages, there live about 120 Indians, contacted by the whites in elapsing of the decade of 80. There are also in the area, two groups of isolated Indians.

Since the contact with the whites, the Uru-I-Wau-Wau started to face several invasion problems. Feared by the ability in the use of the arch and arrow and united in the defense of their lands, they have already avoided a lot of pillaging attempts. Once, they expel about two thousand prospectors that tried to enter in the reservation to search for gold.

Occupation of the boundary
In the last years, however, the situation became worse. The invaders started to remove wood of the area in a selective way and to occupy the proximities of the boundary of the reservation, with the planting of several cultures. There are also fences of wires in the middle of the forest. We separated ourselves in several villages to try to take care of the whole area, but the number of invaders is much larger “, said Pureí Uru-I-Wau-Wau, president of the Jupaú Association.

Even affirming that their people are willing to defend their lands at any cost, Purei said that it is necessary more support on the part of Funai and Ibama. “This dropped is arriving more and more inside of the reservation. We have already been losing the lands around the boundaries”, he said.

Disrespect and robbery
The cacique Tanguipi Uru-I-Wau-Wau said that farmers and lumbermen of the area are disrespecting and robbing his people, since they invade the reservation and take everything that they can find. “They remove our wood, our hunt and our fish “, he said. He also pointed out, that unlike the white; the Indian is not leaving the reservation to rob in anybody property

Tanguipi affirmed that his people only want peace and respect, but if the invasions don’t stop, deaths may happen in the area. “Since they continue insisting it is because they want to die”, he said.

Inspection will be intensified
The regional executive administrator of Funai, Rômulo Siqueira de Sá, said that the foundation has been working together in the area with Ibama, the Federal Police and other inspections organs, in the attempt of solving the problem. In few days, according to him, they arrested two invaders that were removing wood of the reservation.

Starting this week, according to the administrator, the inspection will be reinforced. “We are moving more people to travel the whole area and to intensify the surveillance “, he said. The president of Ibama, Osvaldo Pittaluga, was sought several times, by telephone, but he was not found to render information about the performance of the institute in the reservation.

The official contact with the white people, happened in 1969, at that time when the construction of the highway 364 began, in Rondônia, it doesn’t bring good memories to the Suruís Indians. According to the cacique Itabira Suruí, until that date, his people lived without problems.

According to Itabira, the people’s emersion working in the workmanship would have left the Indians afflicted. Certain that the movement would bring them problems; they began to cut the wire of the telegraphic line and to do everything that was possible to disturb the course of the works. “In that time the war began. A people killed the other. I lost my father and my mother in this fight” – the cacique remembered excited, that in that time he was 18 years old.

Another very harmful factor, in the cacique’s opinion, were the diseases transmitted to the Indians by the white people. He explained that the Indians were weak to the diseases of the white people and consequently they were contaminated by evils as influenza and pneumonia and they ended up dying. ” Before the contact, the disease that we knew was the malaria and to that one we had medicines. The death was only caused by age”, he said.

According to Itabira, in 1969 the Suruís population was about 5 thousand people. A measles epidemic appeared after the contact, it would have reduced it to 290. At that time, not even the employees of the National Foundation of the Indian (Funai) could arrive at the villages. ” They only got to know about the disease because one of Suruís told them”, he said.

Before the contact, the Suruís survived of the hunt, of the fishing and of the corn, yam, potato, fruits and honey cultivation. Besides the feeding, the concern was just with the parties. Today, according to the cacique, they go by a lot of difficulties. The feeding was almost totally changed. Instead of fruits and other native victuals, they started to eat rice and bean. “To live in the city we needed to pay water and energy and with the agriculture we just earn money to get dressed. Therefore I find very difficult our life “, complained.

The area of land of Suruís was demarcated in 1980. They are 247 thousand hectares. Nowadays Suruís add up about 1100 Indians. They are divided in four clans. Each one form an association that looks for means to survive.