By Wallace Dias
Sao Paulo (EFE).- Near the skyscrapers of Sao Paulo, the smallest indigenous reserve in Brazil makes its way, immersed in a daily battle to claim their rights in the face of growing real estate speculation.
Its inhabitants now hope that this situation will change with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the Presidency.
The Jaraguá indigenous land occupies 1.7 hectares, less than two football fields, in the imposing capital of Paulista, a cement giant advancing by endangering the ancestral knowledge of the nearly 800 members of the Guarani ethnic group living within it.
Six villages with extremely precarious housing reminiscent of a favela make up this place, where, despite being a few kilometers from the financial heart of Brazil, the State arrives little by little.
Culture as a form of resistance
On the occasion of the Day of Indigenous Peoples, which is celebrated this Wednesday in Brazil, the communities of Jaraguá organized a cultural festival to share their way of life with the “people of the city” and “strengthen their autonomy.”
Music, art and fashion as a response to a growing “hostility” fueled in the last four years by the anti-environmental rhetoric of the now far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), according to their inhabitants.
“We are going through a difficult process because invasions are taking place within our territory. Real estate speculation is very strong. It brings companies that do not respect the prior consultation to which we are entitled. That causes a lot of insecurity,” denounced chief Márcio Verá Mirim, 38, to EFE.
The festival included guided tours of the hives where native stingless bees breed and a symbolic parade by Irene Mendonça, from the Guaraní people of Nhandeva, founder of clothing brand Kunhague Rembiapó Rendá, which means “place where women make”.
The catwalk was a path through the vegetation and among the participating models was Emilly Nunes, an international sensation after walking for Diesel in Milan, and Txai Suruí, an indigenous woman from the Amazonian state of Rondônia who made an impact with her speech at COP-26 of Glasgow, in 2021.
“It is important that images like these reach more people so that indigenous people are more included. Doors have to be opened,” Nunes told EFE.
A message of protest in this tiny reserve whose main objective is the much-desired expansion of its territories, paralyzed for years in a drawer in Brasilia.
The Jaraguá reserve was officially approved in 1987. In 2015 they saw a light at the end of the tunnel, when the Government of Dilma Rousseff decreed the expansion of their lands to 532 hectares.
Only the presidential sanction was missing to make a historic demand a reality, but the following year Congress dismissed Rousseff for alleged irregularities in the management of the budgets.
His successor, the liberal Michel Temer, dampened the joy of the Guarani people by annulling the decree, alleging that it was an “administrative error.”
With Bolsonaro’s ascension to power in 2019, all hope was finally buried. During his four-year term, the far-right leader promised and followed through not to recognize “any more centimeters” of indigenous lands.
“Discrimination and violence against young people in the community came with more force during Bolsonaro’s administration,” recalls Verá Mirim.
waiting for Lula
The times now are different. Lula has given a radical turn to the questioned environmental policy of Bolsonaro, who encouraged the exploitation of wood and minerals on indigenous lands.
The progressive leader established the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and promised to “quickly” resume the creation of new reserves, although one hundred days after assuming power, no progress has yet been made in that direction.
However, Verá Mirim remains hopeful and affirms that Lula’s arrival “creates an expectation” that is positive.
He maintains that without the expansion of his lands it is not possible to develop the culture of his people, increase their crops in a sustainable way, or promote “socio-environmental projects.”
Only in this way -he assures- they will be able to transmit to the new generations the knowledge about the “sacred trees” or the native stingless bees that strengthen their “spirit” through “rituals, crafts and paintings”.
“Everything comes from the essence of these bees (…) We need to preserve our territory,” defends Verá Mirim.