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Having concluded the stage of demarcation and
ratification of the Indigenous Lands, the Foirn (Federation
of the Indigenous Organizations of the upper Rio Negro)
and affiliated associations, with the support of various
partnerships, went on to concentrate on the great challenge
of elaborating a Regional Program for Sustainable Indigenous
Development to be undertaken over the long run for the
region of the Upper and Middle Rio Negro, including
activities for the protection and fiscalization of the
lands, technical training, cultural expression, sustainability
and the well-being of the indigenous communities.
Towards this end, a Participative Socioenvironmental
Zoning was done, at the request of the Foirn which would
give support to the planning of integrated activities
in the areas of culture, health, education and productive
activities. Still on the question of lands, the Foirn
has accompanied the administrative proceedings for the
identification, delimitation, demarcation and ratification
of the following Indigenous Lands: Marabitanas/Cué-Cué
and the Lower Rio Negro, as well as the demarcation
and ratification of Balaio.
The Program also includes the implantation of
model participative projects in the different sub-regions
of the demarcated Indigenous Lands, combining basic
sanitation actions, alternative energy, food security,
generation of income, health, schools, culture, communication
and transportation. Training workshops for indigenous
technicians, from the associations and the Foirn have
been organized in the communities, covering such topics
as the operation of radiophones and outboard motors,
monitoring invasions, video documentation, zoning activities,
the formulation, presentation, and administration of
projects, and others. The Regional Program furthermore
seeks to stimulate traditional productive activities
which have marketing potential, as well as suppport
indigenous initiatives for commercializing goods and
services.
In relation to health, the overall situation
of the indigenous populations in the region is not favorable,
with the recurrence of infecto-parasitici diseases,
above all respiratory ailments (among which is tuberculosis),
malaria, diarrheias and intestinal parasitoses. Presently
the DSEI (Special Indigenous Medical District) of the
Rio Negro is coordinated by the Foirn, which has sought
to adapt the official assistance model to the variety
of socio-cultural and epidemiological situations of
the communities. The perspective is that ethical and
legal procedures be established that guarentee a balance
between medical services and the traditional medicines,
besides stimulating the training of indigenous professionals
and the exchange of information between researchers,
communities, and health professionals. Up to now, more
than 200 people have been hired, including middle and
upper-level professionals, pof which 90% are indigenous
professionals.
Seeking to improve the monitoring of health
in the communities, the Foirn has been developing, in
partnership with ISA, a nutrition care system. Through
the project “Health, Nutrition and Environment on the
Rio Tiquié”, an evaluation of the nutritional state
of the inhabitants of communities in this region is
done through anthropometric measurements made on all
children and adolescents (sometimes, also on adults),
along with an evaluation of their activities and overall
diet. The Project includes the participation of indigenous
health agents and the exchange of knowledge and experiences
between inhabitants of the Tiquié basin and researchers
working in this region (anthropologist, bio-anthropologist,
ecologist and agronomist). To publicize information
on the research and topics related to health and nutrition,
bulletins are produced in Portuguese, Tukano and Tuyuka.
Although the research is restricted to the Rio Tiquié,
in general, its results could be extended to the entire
Upper Rio Negro region.
With regard to education, the middle and upper
Rio Negro can be characterized as a region with a high
degree of school education, but the schools are not
equipped to present a differential concept of indigenous
education. To change this situation, the Project for
Indigenous Education on the Rio Negro, undertaken by
the Foirn, in partnership with the ISA since 1999, has
sought to encourage initiatives for reformulating the
process of school education implanted in the region
since the beginning of the XXth Century by the Salesian
Mission. Although the Municipal Secretary for Education
has developed a network of primary schools in the local
communities, including the hiring of indigenous teachers,
the missions continue to have a monopoly over education
from the 5th to the 8th grades,
which is available only in the mission centres and in
the municipal capitol (in state schools but which are
run by the Salesians), to which the population of the
local communities has been stimulated to migrate.
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In contrast, the Education Project seeks to
implant a type of school that is adapted to the local
realities, that educates people/citizens whose profile
is defined by each ethnic group/community, who are involved
and interested in the present and in the future of their
peoples and lands, seeking political autonomy, control
over the administration of the educational process in
the short and long run, overcoming discrimination, strengthening
the self-esteem of the groups and economic self-sustainability.
At the present time, the project has made possible
indigenous schools in three distinct geographical points,
covering the population of the Içana basin, the peoples
of the Tukano Triangle on the Uaupés and the population
of the Rio Negro around the city of São Gabriel da Cachoeira.
On the Içana, the Baniwa Coripaco Pamáali Indigenous
School, begun in the year 2000, is the first experiment
at extending education in the communities to the 5th
to 8th grades. On the Upper Rio Tiquié, the
Ütapinopona Tuyuka Indigenous School involves five Tuyuka
communities, its work emphasizing the language and culture
of this ethnic group. In Iauareté, a project is in progress
for education and revitalization of the Tariana language,
which includes pedagogical workshops for the the preparation
of didactic material in this language. This same project
of education and stimulation of language and culture
is being done with the Kotiria, Desana and Tukano languages
among the populations of the Uaupés who speak these
languages.
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In the area of economic alternatives, a pioneer
experience in the Brazilian Amazon has been developed
by the Atriart (Associations of the Indigenous Tribes
of the upper Tiquié), the ISA and the Foirn since 1999.
This is the Pisciculture Project, which develops technologies
for reproduction in captivity of species of fish of
the region (like the aracu) and the continuous production
of young fish to populate the community dams, according
to regional ecological and logistical circumstances.
The first breeding station was established in
the village of Caruru Cachoeira, on the upper Rio Tiquié,
and has involved a group of 15 communities between São
Domingos and the Brazil/Colombia border, benefitting
around 550 people. With the success of the artificial
reproduction of the aracu, resulting from the work of
the indigenous team, and the growing number of family
fishponds, besides the development of agroforestry systems
for feeding the fish, the Project was recognized and
approved by the PDPI program (Demonstrative Projects
of the Indigenous Peoples), which will provide financial
support to its activities until 2005. Continuing this
initiative, in 2002 a second breeding station was built
in Iauareté, with the support and administration of
the Coidi (Coordenating Committee of the Indigenous
Organizations of the District of Iauareté). Like the
projects in education and Health and Nutrition, this
project produces informative bilingual bulletins in
the Portuguese, Tuyuka, and Tukano languages which publicize
its results and finding associated with this activity.
Another very successful undertaking in the area
of economic alternatives is being accomplished by the
Baniwa of the Içana River, in one more partnership with
the ISA.
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Outstanding artisans of basketwork with arumã
fibres, the Indians have created the logo “Baniwa Art”
and have been commercializing their production in different
markets, notably in the network of Tok&Stok shops,
in the city of São Paulo (for more information with
regard to the project, see the electronic version of
the book “Baniwa
Art”).
This set of projects, covering various areas,
all through the initiative of the Foirn, affiliated
associations and communities, has relied on the support
of consultants and researchers from various parts of
the world. Seeking to intensify the interchange of experiences,
specialties, and forms of knowledge, as well as to map
out the research that is being done in the region (in
the areas of Anthropology, Biology, Ecology, Medicine,
Archaeology, Education, Nutrition etc.), two seminars
were organized in the years 2000 and 2002, which provided
occasions for evaluating what has been produced and
for tracing guidelines for future projects, in such
a way as to meet the interests not only of the researchers
and institutions, but also of the communities studied.
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In this sense, the seminars set forth the basic
principles for the establishment of procedures in maintaining
the relation between Indians and researchers. In the first
place, it was recommended that a contract be made between
the community (or people, or association) and the person
(corporate or not, public or private) responsible for
the research, in such a way that the groups researched,
or in whose territory the research will be developed,
may have control over research procedures and the final
destination of the material and derived products. Thus,
the researchers must be committed to sharing the benefits
derived from the research, whether by means of publicizing
in an accessible way the results of their research, or
by a share in the financial results resulting from the
economic exploitation of whatever products, or any other
way in which the research results may be divided with,
or returned to, the communities.
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Another important victory for the Foirn was an
agreement signed in 2001 with the Ministry of Justice
to put into effect the project which came to be known
as “Citizens’ Window” and which guarantees the Indians
their right to obtain basic documents (identity cards,
etc.) free of charge. Boats take to the villages the material
necessary for emitting documents such as the RG (General
Register) and the work card. The indigenous associations
are also being benefitted, by getting their documents
in legal order. The project also sponsored a course for
training indigenous legal agents, which brought together
in São Gabriel da Cachoeira 155 representatives of 49
indigenous organizations in order to clarify and discuss
fundamental legal questions involving the demarcation
and fiscalization of Land, their culture and sustainable
development. |
