Representatives of different peoples gathered in Brasilia, during the ATL, to share experiences and exalt the indigenous role in communication
“Before the internet, our peoples already communicated. Sometimes we communicated spiritually. The leaders met that way,” says Alexandre dos Santos, 48, from the Pankararu people. 22 years ago, the indigenous communicator realized the need to use new technologies to strengthen the fight in defense of indigenous rights, especially to give protagonism to relatives.
“People treated us like something folkloric. This made us understand the importance of communication so that we could convey, ourselves, our voices, our knowledge and our reality”, says the representative of the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Nordeste, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo (APOINME) .
Alexandre Pankararu and other leaders participated in the debate “The importance of communication and indigenous technology in decolonization, denunciation and struggle”, held on April 27, the penultimate day of Acampamento Terra Livre (ATL), the largest meeting of the indigenous movement in Brazil, in Brasilia.
This year, the communication of the meeting highlighted the exhibition of films made by indigenous people and the protagonism of the narratives themselves.
Graciela Guarani, from the Guarani-Kaiowá people, got to know the audiovisual world through her friendship with Alexandre Pankararu. After doing some work together, she acted as director and screenwriter in productions such as Cidade Invisível, from Netflix, and Falas da Terra, available on Globoplay.
The filmmaker sees in the images a way for her people, from the Jaguapiru village, to resist. The community, located in Dourados, in Mato Grosso do Sul, has already been the target of attacks of invaders.
As a child, she accompanied her mother to the cassava sale in the city when she realized that the advertisements did not have people who looked like her or her family. And so the dream of representing and giving visibility to the Guarani-Kaiowá was born.
Graciela Guarani, 37 years old, says that, in the past, she participated in workshops, courses and learned from professionals from different parts of the world, such as Peru, Argentina and Italy. However, she did not try to study at universities, as she felt that she was too young and that she would not know how to defend herself against racism.
indigenous leadership
In 2022, the unprecedented participation of an indigenous woman who is a master of communication in the Lula Government's Communication Transition Group, Ariene Susui , was a milestone in the indigenous protagonism for the construction of their own narratives.
Vangêla Maria Isidoro de Morais, a professor at the Federal University of Roraima (UFRR) and Ariene Susui's advisor, says that, even with openings specifically intended for indigenous peoples and the existence of the Insikiran Institute for Indigenous Higher Education (Insikiran), a center dedicated only to indigenous higher education, there is still a legacy of colonizing behavior, which disqualifies indigenous knowledge and traditions. According to the professor, there is a hierarchy of knowledge that feeds the idea that the university is not a place for everyone.
“The way of being indigenous and of being in the academy still brings many challenges for all the actors involved in this training process and, unfortunately, this is not an isolated situation. The university should be one of the main stages for encounters of knowledge; but, without naivety, we know that the academy is a traditional institution with a strong colonial heritage”.
Morais also coordinates a research group on the protagonism of indigenous peoples of different ethnicities in the creation of content in Roraima. The objective is to know the diversity of contents and reflect on the counter-hegemonic way in which they are produced. Ariene's work was the group's inaugural survey, which emerged in 2020. The Wakywai Network (meaning "our news" in the Wapishana language) is a group of communicators from the Roraima Indigenous Council (CIR).
Yanomami communicators
Like the Wakywai Network, the Yanomami are in formation process, with the support of the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and the Hutukara Associação Yanomami (HAY), to set up its own nucleus of communicators. Among the young Yanomami undergoing training are Aida Harika, 25, and Yanomami shaman Edmar Tokorino, 38.
They participated in the ATL for the first time and had the opportunity to show the short films Uma Mulher Pensamento and Pesca com Timbo at the camp's film club.
“I really enjoyed my first participation with my relatives. I took the opportunity to film a lot, but I also felt very sad with the relatives' reports about the situations they are facing in their territories”, reports Edmar Tokorino.
Aida and Edmar are inspired by Morzaniel Ɨramari, the first Yanomami to make films. He is the author of the productions A Casa dos Espíritos, Curadores da Floresta and A Árvore dos Sonhos, which premiered in April and won the Best Documentary award in the Brazilian Competition at the "It's All True - International Documentary Festival" award.
“I feel very happy to do this and become a point of reference for young Yanomami. So they can be more interested and learn more. I want them to know what we are doing and young people to continue fighting for our land and our rights”, says Morzaniel.
Xingu communicators
Also present at the ATL were communicators from the Xingu+ Network. Kunity M. Panará, who lives in the Panará Indigenous Land, reported that three years ago he began to learn the processes of communication.
“I think it's important to keep up with movements, demonstrations and, with our communication work, it's possible to tell other relatives what's happening outside our Indigenous Land. So we keep everyone on our toes,” he says.
In a training held the week before the ATL by Rede Xingu+, Xingu communicators created a Instagram account. During the mobilization, they produced content to inform their communities about what was being discussed in the plenary sessions, including accompanying the march that declared climate emergency in Brazil.
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