A government of death is plundering our ancient Munduruku lands. Help us stop it
We, the Munduruku
people, send our thoughts and words to you who live far away. We echo the cry
for help from our mother, the forest, and from all the indigenous peoples in
Brazil. Our home of
Mundurukânia and all 13,000 of our people are threatened by the Brazilian
government’s plans to build more than 40
hydroelectric dams in the Tapajós basin, as well as an industrial waterway and
other major projects.
This would destroy the
rapids of the Tapajós river that have long protected us from the pariwat (white
people). Construction of the São Luiz, Jatobá and Chacorão dams would also
flood our territory and erase the history written in the land. Such a disaster
has already happened on the Teles Pires tributary, where the
government and companies blew up our sacred waterfall, Sete
Quedas. This left the spirits of our dead without a resting place. What
would you say if we destroyed your graveyards, or the Vatican or Jerusalem?
The mining of gold,
minerals and precious stones also carries the suffering of our people to
distant lands. Diamond extraction in Sawré Muybu threatens another of our most
sacred sites, called Os Fechos (Dajekapap), which we see as our origin and the
site of the footprint of our god Karosakaybu.
Loggers are entering
our lands and destroying our agũkabuk (abandoned villages that
are archaeological sites). This is why at the beginning of April, alongside
riverine communities, our warriors prevented
the government from holding a public hearing that would have advanced
plans for timber extraction. We will not accept logging projects in our lands.
Some of the places are
said by the government to lie outside our lands. But we have occupied these
places, along with the riverine communities, for many generations. We have our own ways
of learning and taking care of the forest. We have been doing this for more
than 500 years. Yet we must still remind the white people of their own laws.
Brazil’s 1988 constitution has an
entire chapter dedicated to indigenous peoples. Brazil also signed the International
Labour Organisation’s indigenous and tribal peoples’ convention and
the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. Are these dead words?..
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