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The land where the Waimiri Atroari live is located
in the northern part of the state of Amazonas and the
southern part of Roraima in the Brazilian Amazon. This
region lies to the east of the lower Rio Negro, covering
the river basins of the Rios Jauaperi and Camanaú
and their tributaries, the Rios Alalaú, Curiaú,
Pardo, and Santo Antonio do Abonari. Long ago, the land
of the Waimiri Atroari (which they call kinja itxiri)
was more extensive, reaching the Rios Urubu, Uatumã,
and Anauá.
Census data from the end of the nineteenth century
and the beginning of the twentieth estimated that the
Waimiri Atroari population was between 2000 and 6000.
In the 1970s, FUNAI made an estimate of 500 to 1000
people. However, all these figures were based on speculation
rather than actual census counts. The fact remains that
the Waimiri Atroari population decreased during their
contact history because of the frontier wars and foreign
diseases, falling to 374 people in 1988. In December
of 2001, their population had increased to 913, divided
into nineteen local groups belonging to three hamlets.
In 1987, a project for mitigating the environmental
impact of the Balbina Hydroelectric Dam was proposed
and presented to the Waimiri Atroari, Eletronorte, and
FUNAI. The project, known as the Waimiri Atroari Program,
planned to deliver services in the areas of health,
education, environment, agricultural assistance, border
security, documentation, and historical memory. When
the interested parties accepted the proposal, an accord
was signed between FUNAI and Eletronorte, the former
agreeing to implement the project and the latter to
finance it. Under the terms of this arrangement, an
area of 2,585,911 hectares of land was demarcated for
the Waimiri Atroari reservation, which received permanent
legal status in 1989.
Nowadays, the Waimiri Atroari have access to
a culturally distinct school system, in which they themselves
design and conduct the educational process, as well
as access to medical and dental services. The growth
rate averages 5.8% per year. They have sought to manage
the new demands spurred by the processes of cultural
encounter. They try to utilize various industrialized
products to improve their working conditions and to
reduce the time spent traveling between distant locales.
The enhanced quality of life can be observed in the
daily activities of the Kinja, who have more time available
to spend on social, economic, and cultural activities.
The benefits have also led to an increase in the birth
rate, visible in the number of boys to be initiated
in the maryba festivals, which are becoming ever
more frequent and indispensable to the cultural agenda
of the Waimiri Atroari.
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