| The Xingu Program, initiated by ISA
in 1995, comprises an array of projects in partnership
with the Xingu Indigenous Territory Association (Atix),
the communities of the Xingu Indigenous Park (PIX),
and the residents of the Panará Indigenous Territory.
The program’s aim is to formulate and develop
an integrated set of projects that will expand the Indians’
ability to interact effectively with the encompassing
society and become political protagonists; to augment
the economic autonomy of the communities and the management
capacities of their organizations; to strengthen their
cultural affirmation; to promote methods of sustainably
managing traditional natural resources; and to train
them in ways of protecting and monitoring their territorial
borders.
ISA coordinates this program from its headquarters
in São Paulo, with support bases inside the Xingu
Indigenous Park and the Panará Indigenous Territory
for conducting field projects.
Lines of action
The main lines of action in the Xingu Program are
currently:
- Coordination and development
- Sustainable management of natural resources and
development of economic alternatives
- Education and culture
- Capacity-building in administration and institutional
strengthening of indigenous associations
- Territorial management and border surveillance
- Panará Project
About the Xingu Indigenous
Territory Association (ATIX)
The Xingu Indigenous Territory Association, the main
partner in the Xingu Program, has played a prominent
role in the Xingu Indigenous Park (PIX), not only because
of the significance and breadth of the Program activities,
but also due to its high level of effectiveness and
autonomy achieved over the past nine years of its existence
and the recognition it receives from the Xingu peoples
as an organization representing their interests. ATIX’s
activities involve the Park as a whole, concerning sanitation,
education (through partnerships and accords with outside
agencies), and protecting and monitoring the PIX borders,
all projects that enjoy wide approval by the peoples
who inhabit the region.
Xingu Indigenous Park
Created by the Federal government in 1961, the Xingu
Indigenous Park (PIX) is located in the state of Mato
Grosso and covers an area of 2.8 million hectares with
a perimeter of 920 kilometers. Situated in an area of
transitional ecological features, with tropical forests
to the north and scrublands to the south, the region
displays great complexity in terms of its ecological,
social, and cultural diversity. The PIX is inhabited
by fourteen ethnic groups – the Kuikuro, Kalapalo,
Matipu, Nahukuá, Mehinaku, Waurá, Aweti,
Kamaiurá, Trumai, Yawalapiti, Suiá, Kaiabi,
Ikpeng, and Yudjá – that speak different
languages and are distributed among 49 villages and
government Indian posts, with a total population of
around 4,700 people.
Regional settlement
The process of regional settlement surrounding the
Xingu Indigenous Park was accelerated in the 1970s with
the arrival of government and private agricultural and
ranching projects and colonization programs. These formed
part of official policies for settling the Amazon and
Central West regions of Brazil and integrating them
with the states in the South through the construction
of the BR-163 Highway (linking Cuiabá in Mato
Grosso and Santarém in Pará) and the BR-158
Highway (linking Barra do Garças in Mato Grosso
and Redenção in Pará). Since the
creation of the Park up to the mid-1980s, its inhabitants
lived in relative isolation from the outside world,
counting on the strong protectionist presence of the
Brazilian state. Since then, the government’s
role has been diminishing and the Xingu Indians have
been taking control of the vulnerable situation of their
territorial boundaries and the sustainability of their
natural resources. They had witnessed the spread of
fires set on ranches opened up around their territory,
intermittent invasions by hunters and fishers, the choking
of their rivers by silt run-off from deforestation,
and the increasing risk of contamination from agrotoxins
and illegal logging.
Given the gravity of this situation and the socio-environmental
significance of this area, ISA realized that ATIX, although
just getting organized, represented an important political
movement that could lead to a partnership capable of
initiating a process of transformation in the current
situation.
Project for Capacity-building and Strengthening
of the Xingu Indigenous Territory Association (ATIX)
and the Panará Yakiô Association
This project involves a set of activities that are aimed at gradually increasing
the autonomy of ATIX, Iakiô, and other Xingu organizations
in terms of their technical, managerial, administrative,
legal, and political aspects. ISA’s work covers
accompanying, advising, and training members of the
indigenous associations in planning and managing the
projects they are developing.
Project for Assistance and Reinforcement of ATIX
This project seeks to enhance the conditions for ATIX to independently organize
and mobilize the leaders in the Xingu Park around an
agenda of political issues related to the administration
of the PIX. Since this entails taking acting in government
arenas at the municipal, state, and Federal levels,
the project is aimed at building the capacity of ATIX
to formulate and manage its own projects.
Project for Natural Resource Management and Development
of Sustainable Economic Alternatives
The objective of this project is to expand the political
and administrative autonomy of the communities in the
Xingu Indigenous Park (PIX) and the Panará Indigenous
Territory in activities involving the economic and cultural
management of the natural resources in their lands.
It seeks to stimulate the maintenance and cultural revival
of traditional practices, while, at the same time, updating
traditional forms of management in order to deal effectively
with the new situation of scarcity and limitations of
their natural resources arising from contact with the
national society. The project also involves aspects
related to subsistence economy, food security, and participatory
management of natural resources. It has been assisting
ATIX to consolidate the sustainable production and marketing
of certain distinctive products, enhanced by added environmental
and cultural value, such as the brand of “Honey
from the Xingu Indians,” artisanry, and vegetal
oils.
All these activities involve a strong educational component
that recognizes the value of traditional knowledge and
techniques. This aspect is conveyed through the Program
for Training Indigenous Agents in Natural Resource Management,
in which 27 agents from four ethnic groups in the northern
part of the PIX are participating.
The overall strategy of the project is oriented toward
the sustainable use and conservation of local biodiversity,
the diversification of products generating income, the
reduction of negative impacts on less abundant resources;
and the development of research and management activities
related to threatened resources of traditional use.
The project places emphasis on indigenous capacity-building
in order to expand local autonomy in the sustainable
management of the Xingu territory and its natural resources.
Indigenous Teacher Training
in the Xingu Indigenous Park
This project consists of the on-going training of
39 indigenous teachers who obtained their teaching certificates,
and in preparing 44 other Xingu residents to obtain
theirs. These participants come from the fourteen different
ethnic groups in the Xingu Indigenous Park., as well
as two teachers from the Kaiabi Indigenous Territory
and two from the Panará Territory. The project
prepares and accompanies the instructors who are already
teaching in forty village schools that reach 1,358 pupils.
Teacher training occurs in intensive stages each semester,
complemented by pedagogical accompaniment of the teachers
in the classroom by educational specialists associated
with ISA. The project includes the elaboration of various
educational materials in indigenous languages and Portuguese,
which have been viewed as models for public policies
on indigenous education.
Click here to learn
more about the teacher training project.
Xingu Borders Project
This project’s goal is to develop a model for
the monitoring, protection, and surveillance of the
boundaries and immediate surroundings of the Xingu Indigenous
Park in order to assure the integrity and security of
its physical borders and natural resources. These activities
are carried out in partnership with ATIX and the participation
of the indigenous communities, receiving support from
governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations.
The project has also mounted a set of initiatives for
expanding the Indians’ direct control over the
PIX borders. These include supporting the construction
and maintenance of eleven indigenous surveillance posts;
the clearing and renovation of paths marking the boundaries;
conducting expeditions to check on intrusions by outsiders;
training indigenous directors of the surveillance posts;
monitoring and mapping the vectors of settlement in
the surroundings and the dynamics of deforestation in
the region of the Xingu headwaters; and enhancing the
political interaction of PIX leaders with local municipal
offices and Federal government environmental agencies
(Ibama and Fema).
The expeditions around to the areas surrounding the
PIX have the mission of bringing back information about
the general condition of the remaining forests and scrublands,
rivers and vegetation along the river channels, as well
as improving methods for gathering such information,
observing and checking on changes in the landscape,
and combating illegal economic activities that are damaging
the environment.
Click here to
learn more about the expeditions.
Panará Project
Initiated in 1991, the Panará project had the objective of providing
reparation for the violation of the rights of the Panará
people, victims of a disastrous process of contact with
the Brazilian state during the construction of the BR-163
Highway in the 1970s. The opening of this highway led
to the near-extinction of the Panará and the
transference of their 78 survivors to the Xingu Indigenous
Park. During the ‘90s, the project developed a
campaign for mobilizing public opinion to support the
recognition of a parcel of the Panará’s
traditional territory, where the Indians began to return
in 1996. In conjunction with these activities, ISA and
its lawyers supported the Panará in filing a
lawsuit against the Brazilian government for indemnification
of the losses and damages they suffered during the period
of contact and transference to the PIX. The Panará
were successful in all the court cases, and, in July,
2003, received the indemnification they had sought.
The project is currently elaborating activities devoted
to expanding the sustainability of Panará society.
This includes enhancing the Panará’s capacity
for political activism and effective interaction with
the encompassing society; expanding their economic autonomy
and managerial capacity in their Iakiô Association;
creating conditions for increasing their cultural strength;
training bilingual teachers; discussing methods for
managing their traditional natural resources; and protecting
and monitoring their territory.
One of the activities in the Panará Project
is the “Survey of Potential Natural Resources
in the Panará Indigenous Territory,” initiated
in 2001. This documents the ecological potential of
the region and the use, management, and classification
of natural resources within the traditional system of
knowledge. During its first phase, the survey evaluated
the potential of certain resources for developing sustainable
economic projects. A overview was also conducted of
the condition of agricultural and forestry resources
that would need some type of intervention in order to
make them more accessible to areas close to the village.
In addition, the survey investigated how the Panará
classify different kinds of environments and how they
make use of resources within their traditional management
system. The surveys currently being conducted are oriented
toward evaluating the potential for cultivating forestry
seeds as an activity that would represent a culturally
appropriate, sustainable method for managing scarce
resources, as well as offering an economic alternative
that would be viable in the local and regional context.
Team
Coordinator: André Villas-Bôas (indigenist specialist)
Adjunct Coordinator: Paulo Junqueira (psychologist)
Assistant Coordinator: Arminda Jardim (humanities graduate)
Technical Advisor: Fábio Leonardo Thomaz (agronomist)
Technical Advisor: Kátia Ono (ecologist)
Project Coordinator, Natural Resources Management and
Sustainable Economic Alternatives: Marcus Vinicius Chamon
Schmidt (forestry engineer)
Remote Sensing Analyst: Mônica Takako Shimabukuro
(biologist)
Project Coordinator, Teacher Training: Maria Cristina
Troncarelli (Bimba) (educator)
Project Assistant, Teacher Training: Camila Gauditano
de Cerqueira (social sciences graduate)
Project Assistant, Teacher Training: Paula Mendonça
de Menezes (teacher)
Project Assistant, Teacher Training: Rosana Cristian
Gasparini (geographer)
Development and Socio-Environmental Research Analyst:
Rosely Alvim Sanches (biologist)
Outside consultants
Márcio Lopes: apiculture technical advisor,
agricultural specialist
Estela Würker: teacher training project assistant,
nurse
Carmen Junqueira: anthropologist, Pontifical Catholic
University, São Paulo (PUC/SP)
Geraldo Mosimann da Silva: associate researcher, agronomy
engineer
Jackeline Rodrigues Mendes: mathematics professor, Campinas
State University
Miriam Coelho de Souza: nutritionist, Piracicaba Methodist
University (UNIMEP)
Bruna Franchetto: anthropologist and linguist, Museu
Nacional, Rio de Janeiro
Renato Gavazzi: geographer, (CPI/AC)
Raquel Guirardello: education advisor, linguist
Simone Athayde: associate researcher, biologist
Maria Lucia Gomide: plastic artist, University of São
Paulo
Wemersom Chimello Ballester: apiculture technical advisor,
agronomy engineer
Priority partnerships
Xingu Indigenous
Territory Association (ATIX)
Panará Iakiô Indigenous Association
Rainforest Foundation of Norway (RFN): financial support
and partnership in program formulation
Specialist partners and funding sources
Rainforest Foundation-United States (RFUS): financial
support for the Panará Project
The Nature Conservancy (TNC ), U.S.: financial support
Office of Education of the State of Mato Grosso (SEDUC):
financial and pedagogical support
Ministry of Education (MEC) /General Coordinating Office
for Support to Indigenous Schools: financial support
National Indian Agency (FUNAI): financial support and
partnership in training indigenous teachers and surveillance
post directors
Rainforest Foundation of Norway (RFN): financial support
and partnership in program formulation
Land of People (France): financial support and partnership
in program formulation
United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF):
financial support and partnership in program formulation
Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), Department
of Preventative Medicine: involvement in Xingu Program
on nutrition and trash control issues
Colgate: support for publication of five books on health
in indigenous languages
Official Press of the State of São Paulo: support
for publication of two books.
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