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Indigenous activist Samela Sateré-Mawé argues that Portugal has a “historical debt” with the original peoples of Brazil, facing the period of discoveries, adding that young Portuguese now have the opportunity to make a difference.
“I wanted to tell the people of Portugal that we, the indigenous peoples, have continued to resist since the invasion in 1500, some 520 years ago, but now people have the opportunity to make a difference, in the present,” said the activist from 24 years. years, of the Sateré-Mawé ethnic group, which has become one of the most promising female voices of Brazilian indigenous and environmental activism.
“The past has passed, but there is an opportunity to do things differently now. So, young people (Portuguese) need to be more active, fight for environmental causes and for the rights of indigenous peoples ”, appealed Samela, who is a member of the student movement”. Friday’s for Future ”and the SOS Amazónia campaign.
The young indigenous woman remembers the suffering of her ancestors, who, due to contact with Europeans, mainly Portuguese, due to the intense exploitation and advance on the Brazilian territories, were decimated.
Some studies indicate that there were between three and five million indigenous people in Brazil, before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, most of them located on the coast. However, in 2010, the year of the last census, this population was less than 900 thousand individuals.
It was at her home in Manaus, capital of Amazonas, where Samela, a future biologist, received Lusa and showed her the place where she records her daily videos for social networks, her main tool to mobilize other young people in favor of the environmental cause and indigenous.
It was also in the back of their house that the Sateré-Mawé women established a small unit for the production of protective masks against covid-19, as a way to support themselves during the pandemic.
Customized with indigenous elements, the masks, which began to be sold in rather timid quantities, are now shipped by the thousands abroad and throughout Brazil, as well as being donated directly to the poorest ancestral populations.
Despite her 24 years, Samela has already outlined her priorities, and facing the current government, of Jair Bolsonaro, she is among them.
“Since 2018, this ‘mismanagement’ has attacked indigenous peoples with an unprecedented, prejudiced, unscrupulous speech. He (Bolsonaro) encourages people to be prejudiced against indigenous peoples, but does not take into account that Brazil was built on through the villages. Women were raped, among other things, to have all this diversity that the country has, “he said.
“Not taking into account all this diversity is a crime. But even so, we resist more and more. We try to impose ourselves on social networks, occupy all places, all screens, all places of decision-making,” he emphasized. the activist.
According to a study published last September by the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), violence against the native communities of Brazil increased in 2019 during the first year of Jair Bolsonaro’s mandate, a period in which attacks and invasions of their lands grew.
However, despite external threats, the study points to the Government itself as the greatest aggressor of indigenous peoples, due to its omission in the duty of protection and for making their territories available to agribusiness, mining and logging companies.
As he had promised in his 2018 election campaign, when he said he would not give “one more centimeter” to his ancestors, Jair Bolsonaro did not demarcate any indigenous lands. In addition, it also returned 27 demarcation processes to the Fundação Nacional do Índio (Funai), in the first half of 2019, for review.
“The Government promotes the creation of cattle and soybeans, which occupy the most indigenous territories. Brazil has 13% of demarcated indigenous lands. For a country that had 100%, 13% is very little and they still think about reviewing them. They are attack after attack, and it also encourages gold miners, loggers, fires and land grabbers to invade our lands.
“We are silenced, many family members have already been killed while defending their lands. Here in the Amazon, we have a lot about deforestation and burning. The president still says they are the ‘Indians’ themselves, he doesn’t even use the correct term. They burn their land. That is not true and people end up believing in him, because they trust him blindly, ”lamented the activist.
Samela emphasized, however, that the prejudice against indigenous people is not new, but dates back to the period of Portuguese colonization, which led to the annihilation of most of Brazil’s natives.
“Indigenous peoples have always become unviable. The invasion in Brazil is more than 520 years old. Since then, we have suffered various types of prejudice and we do not have access to all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, such as access to differentiated health. ..) Much less education ”, said Samela Sateré-Mawé.
The young Brazilian also revealed that she feels discriminated daily for being indigenous, setting an example from her neighborhood, which rarely communicates with the Sateré-Mawé community, due to “fear, mistrust or simply prejudice.”
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