The Waiãpi and the Centro de Trabalho Indigenista
Since the beginning of the 1990s, with the support of anthropologist
Dominique Tilkin Gallois, CTI (Centro de Trabalho Indigenista
- Center of Indigenist Work) has been developing a program with
multiple actions in partnership with the Waiãpi Indians
of the State of Amapá. The program's objective are to contribute
to the strengthening of the self-management and the socio-cultural
development of this people, listen to and implement its demands
and ensure its permanent participation in the process.
The partnership
Registered in 1996, Apina (Conselho das Aldeias Wãiapi-
Council of Wãiapi Villages) has become an increasingly
strong voice in the relationship among villages and as external
representation of this people. It is with Apina that CTI has established
its current partnerships.
The
initial goal of the partnership was territorial legalization and
the physical demarcation of the Waiãpi Indigenous Land,
which was concluded in 1996 with the support of Funai and GTZ
(Sociedade Alemã de Cooperação Técnica
- German Society for Technical Cooperation). Currently, the assistance
given by CTI covers all local groups and has a predominantly educative
character.
Begun in 1992, the Programa de Educação (Education
Program) has the goal of preparing young adults for taking the
control of the schools and infirmaries in their villages, as well
as forming adults and young adults for the management of programs
and for dealing with external agents. The work has the support
of RFN (RainForest da Noruega/Operação OD - RainForest
of Norway/Operation OD), of NEI/AP (Núcleo de Educação
Indígena - Nucleus of Indigenous Education/State of Amapá)
and of MEC (Ministério da Educação e Cultura
- Brazil's Minister of Education and Culture).
The Programa de Vigilância (Vigilance Program), carried
out with the support of PPTAL (Projeto Integrado de Proteção
às Terras e Populações Indígenas da
Amazonia Legal Brasileira - Integrated Project for the Protection
of Indigenous Lands and Peoples of the Brazilian Legal Amazonia)/Funai
is part of a number of interventions directed towards the control
of the territory, environmental recovery and development of productive
alternatives. The idea is to encourage Indigenous participation
and strengthen their initiatives to control the limits of their
lands.
Recovering areas deteriorated by mining activities
The recovery of areas deteriorated by invading 'garimpeiros' (miners)
is one of the projects being carried out by CTI and Apina. It
is based on previous experiences by the Waiãpi for the
diversification and adjustment of their extractive activities,
control of their territory and environmental recovery.
Approved in 1996 within the Ministry of the Environment's PD/A
(Projetos Demonstrativos /Amazônia - Demonstrative Projects/Amazonia)
program, the project had to be suspended due to a campaign promoted
by local politicians and miners against CTI and Apina. A judicial
decision in favor of the project was recently announced and work
should now be resumed.
The project's initial target is the environmental recovery of
parts of the Igarapé (small Amazon waterway) Aimã's
basin, in the heart of the Waiãpi Indigenous Land, intensely
used by the Indians. The execution of the project should ensure
the participation of Indigenous teams from several local groups
and the continuity of the control they exert over their territory's
natural resources. The work that has to be performed - in reality,
a pilot program - may be later adapted for the recovery of other
deteriorated areas (in the South and East of the Waiãpi
Indigenous Land), in a format of self-management by the Indigenous
community.
Capacity building of the Waiãpi for the management of
the profits brought by the secondary production of alluvial gold
and its commercialization shall be made through investments capable
of responding to collective demands, under Apina's supervision.
The simultaneous diversification of the extractive and agro-forestal
activities should be capable of responding, in the long run, to
the specific demands of the villages, both in terms of self-subsistence
and in production for commercialization.
Regarding the environmental question, the project aims at working
in a deteriorated area using mining techniques adequate for the
development of a methodology and of training, while simultaneously
working on the recovery of the area.
Thus the intention is to consolidate a new orientation in the
mining activities these Indians have been involved with for a
long time, preventing the multiplication of small 'garimpos' (mining
areas) explored by family groups. These families will be redirected
towards a large scale, collective work of recovery of deteriorated
areas, which nevertheless will have a secondary gold production.
These activities will be associated to the implementation of agro-forestal
products along demarcation paths (with native plants such as cupuaçú
and pupunha, which will be grown in family greenhouses as well
as in a central one). Because of its non-familial scale, these
productive activities may be capable of strengthening the experience
of autonomous management, which is the Waiãpi's main expectation.
"The white man only talks of 'garimpo', 'garimpo', 'garimpo'!
That's not how it is! The white man says that the Indian will
become 'garimpeiro'. The Indian will not become a 'garimpeiro'.
It is the 'garimpeiro' who destroys the land. Will the white man
take care of the Indian's land? No! (...) That's why the Indian
must learn how to work for himself. So he can take care of himself
without having to ask the white man for money. That's what we
want (...)." (Kasiripinã, Apina's president in 1998)
(The content of this page was taken from the article "CTI
e Waiãpi: uma parceria ameaçada" - CTI and
the Waiãpi: a threatened partnership) -, by Angela Maria
Schwengber, August/ 2000).
