Indigenous female leaders promote dialogue between traditional knowledge and legal rights, expanding support and protection networks in their communities.
From November 11th to 13th, the second module of the Indigenous Popular Legal Promoters program brought together approximately 80 female leaders from the five regional offices of the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Rio Negro (FOIRN) and the municipal headquarters of São Gabriel da Cachoeira to discuss women's rights in connection with local cultures. The main objective was to help them replicate this knowledge in their communities and grassroots organizations and promote the fight against gender-based violence, especially that perpetrated against women.
The initiative, promoted by the Department of Indigenous Women of Rio Negro (DMIRN/Foirn) in partnership with the Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA), the Faculty of Public Health of the University of São Paulo and the Observatory of Gender Violence in Amazonas (OVGAM) of the Federal University of Amazonas, combines legal knowledge with indigenous knowledge and practices, considering both the reality of women in communities and in the urban context.
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Dulce Morais, anthropologist and gender advisor at ISA, explains that the first module, held in the second half of 2021, after the most intense period of the Covid-19 pandemic, sought to detail information on women's rights and legal tools designed to protect them, and also helped identify collective strategies associated with the Rio Negro system of knowledge, care, and practices for preventing and confronting violence against women, youth, and children.
The second module followed the same proposal and the beginning of the program was dedicated to the recovery of various coping actions carried out in Rio Negro since 2018. Carla Dias, an anthropologist at ISA, was one of the organizers of the training and says that the moments of collective exchange provide the sharing of individual experiences and the joint construction of care and reception strategies, based on the ways of life, practices and indigenous knowledge of each people and region where Foirn operates.
"It was also an opportunity to strengthen support networks and partnerships in preventing and addressing violence against women in Rio Negro," she highlighted.
Elizângela Costa, a Baré leader and organizer of the activity, emphasized the importance of combining knowledge of Western laws, government services, and traditional knowledge in combating violence against Indigenous women. "Today, we live in two worlds: the traditional and the contemporary. To continue existing in these two spaces, we need to navigate these two knowledges," she stated.
According to her, it's necessary to develop an understanding and name violence. "We often say we don't experience violence because we think it's cultural. But I always emphasize: culture is not violence. We need to understand what culture is and also identify what violence is," she emphasizes.
Strengthening local practices, such as valuing the mother tongue, healthy eating practices, blessings and the use of medicinal plants, and the resumption of blessings by families were strategies mentioned by the groups during the mapping of support networks and care and reception strategies, combined with the presence and action of structures such as the Special Indigenous Health District (Dsei), Psychosocial Care Center (Caps), hospital, police station, and social organizations present in the territories.
Natália Farias, a doctoral student at the research center of the São Paulo School of Public Health, contributed to the presentation of public health services offered in the municipal headquarters of São Gabriel da Cachoeria, especially for cases of sexual violence.
Renata Vieira, a lawyer for the Rio Negro Program of the Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA), presented information along with Mayitê Fontes Ambrósio, a lawyer on the technical team at Foirn, on Brazilian laws that guarantee rights and protection for women and the public services available for their protection.
"It's important for women to understand their rights, as well as the public policies offered by the State, so they can assert their rights and demand policies tailored to their specific needs. However, we know there are limits both from a legal perspective and from the public services offered, most of which are inadequate for the sociocultural and geographic specificities of Indigenous women living in the Amazon. Therefore, it's crucial for them to utilize their own knowledge and strengthen local and family support networks to combat violence within their territories," Renata stated.
On the last day of the meeting, through a fictional case study activity based on real-life situations, the participants, divided into groups, identified the types of violence or vulnerabilities faced by the characters and discussed how to respond to these situations. "They were able to practice combining local practices with available public services and policies to manage these situations, a powerful collective achievement for the participants," concluded Carla.
Flavia Melo, coordinator of the Amazonas Gender Violence Observatory (OVGAM), presented the research work in a dialogue with the participants. “Weaving Life Under Strong Arms: Characterization of Violence Against Women in the City of São Gabriel da Cachoeira”, carried out within the scope of this inter-institutional partnership, which brings together data and analyses of police reports involving female victims collected at the São Gabriel da Cachoeira police station between 2010 and 2019.
According to Flávia, “numbers are an important tool for political advocacy, whether to give greater visibility to violence against women, to encourage specific public policies, or to inform social control.”
José Miguel Olivar, a researcher and partner since the beginning of the gender-based violence initiatives in Rio Negro, highlighted that "through these meetings, we have been able to observe the exchange of information, affection, and understanding about violence. This process has helped expand and strengthen these networks of care and political advocacy," he commented.
The exercise of georeferenced mapping of the participants' communities and neighborhoods of origin highlighted the extensive geographic distribution of the network of Rio Negro women involved in the agenda of preventing and addressing gender-based violence. The geographic mapping of the participants supports the organization of the remaining modules of the Rio Negro Indigenous Popular Legal Promoters training path and the monitoring of the initiative's multiplier potential.
Network of multipliers
One of the representatives of the Middle and Lower Rio Negro (Caimbrn) region, Carlinha Yanomami, from the Maturacá community, in the Yanomami Indigenous Land in Amazonas, said she was excited about participating in the workshop and that the knowledge acquired was of great importance to them.
"We Yanomami women often don't fully understand our rights. Whether we're being harmed psychologically or physically, workshops like this will certainly help us immensely. What we learn, what knowledge we have, we share with those who remain (in the villages)."
Pedrina Gonçalves Gaspar, from Baré, representing the Alto Rio Negro and Xié region (Caibarnx), says that what she found most important was understanding women's rights. "We knew some things, but not everything. Here, some doubts were clarified. Being able to come, listen, and share this knowledge with other women, with our associations. We work with men's and women's associations, and I found it crucial to participate in learning about our rights and passing them on to women at the grassroots level."
Ivaneide Júlio Galdêncio, a member of the Baré people, lives in the municipality of Santa Isabel do Rio Negro. She says she had never heard of other types of violence before. The meeting was important for her to learn how to identify it and, therefore, share this knowledge with other women at association meetings and in her communities: "Sometimes we experience [violence] and don't even realize it. We think violence is just being beaten and punched. But it goes beyond that. Sometimes men swear and treat us badly, and we don't even realize that this is also a form of violence."
“A woman's place is wherever she wants it to be”
After the workshop ended, the program continued with the IX General Elective Assembly of Women of Rio Negro, which re-elected Cleocimara Reis to continue the work carried out over the last two years at the head of the Women's Department.
Cleocimara Reis received 44 votes out of a total of 55 from the voting representatives of the FOIRN Regional Coordinators. She expressed her gratitude, emotionally, and spoke of the challenge of representing the women of 23 indigenous peoples from the region's 750 indigenous communities, spread across three municipalities: São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, and Barcelos.
In her speech, she emphasized the importance of facing challenges together and strengthening the collective struggle. "May we truly build our women's movement. May we support each other so we can achieve the gender equality we so often talk about. We witness the suffering and struggle of every woman, whether young, child, adolescent, adult, or elderly. We need to work against inequalities and promote our collective strength," the leader reinforced.
Cleocimara Reis also highlighted the importance and need to strengthen partnerships with government sectors and civil society partners, given that the challenges facing DMIRN are numerous and complex, requiring a multi-faceted effort.
The ceremony concluded with a celebration and renewed hope from the Indigenous women of Rio Negro. Representatives from each Regional Coordination Office presented gifts, such as necklaces and gourds, to Cleocimara and sang songs in Indigenous languages, conveying powerful messages of gratitude, congratulations, and best wishes for a successful administration over the next four years. "And as we always say, a woman's place is wherever she wants it to be. Thank you very much," concluded the reelected DMIRN coordinator.
The second training module for Indigenous Popular Legal Promoters and the 9th Elective Assembly of the Rio Negro Indigenous Women's Department were produced with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Nia Tero, and Google. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the supporting partners.
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