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Help the Pataxó people fight for the right for their land

I’ve made a few posts about this but they may have been a bit confusing, so after a few days of tourmoil of emotions and stress, I’ve decided to take some time to talk a little more in-depth about what’s been going on with the Pataxó people in Brazil and how we can help them prevent an immense injustice that’s just about to unfold

First off, an introduction!

The Pataxó inhabit the areas of the Brazilian states of Bahia and Minas Gerais, and nowadays have a population of about 13.000 people. The Pataxó were one of the first peoples in Brazil to come in contact with the Portuguese settlers, along with the Tupinaky’ia, Poti’wara, Tupinambá, Tabajara and others, and have been resisting colonization and genocide for over 500 years.

in the picture above, you can see a picture of the Awe ritual at the Coroa Vermelha reservation, 2006 taken from the website https://img.socioambiental.org/v/publico/pataxo/foto+20_+AWE+SARAH+MIRANDA.JPG.html

After centuries of colonization, the Pataxó, like many of the other first contact nations previously mentioned, have suffered many losses to their culture, including land sovereignty, language fluency, the right to practice their religion, the right to name their babies with traditional names, and many others. 

But like the aforementioned nations, the Pataxó have been doing an amazing job going back their traditional lands, getting to teach their children their traditional language, the Patxohã (pah- tsho-han) language, strengthening their ties to their spirituality, culture and land.

this a video of the IX Pataxó games, featuring competitions of traditional sports and practices

The most difficult part about fighting for their land when you’re a first contact nation in Brazil though, is that, as you can see torwards the end of the video, our traditional land is the coast, the beaches and the forests that sorround them (Mata Atlântica). And the thing with the Brazilian coast, is that it is heavilly disputed by multimilionaire hotel companies and construction companies, gringos and rich Brazilians wanting to build summer houses and buy private beaches, basically EVERYONE has their eyes on this land. Because having a hotel in the brazilian tropical coast, or building summer houses by the beach to rent is pretty much guaranteed to bring in a LOT of money. It’s all about money.

this is a traditional build (kijeme) destroyed last year in results of a conflict with white land owners. many other builds were destroyed in the occasion. The criminals destroyed them in the middle of the night and no one even saw them. Picture posted on the village leadership Thyara Pataxó’s twitter account

So there are enormous and lengthy legal conflicts between the Pataxó people and the big business owners and private land owners (because of course the Brazilian government doesn’t give a shit) over the land. And of course, like all indigenous people, the land is SACRED and fundamental for the Pataxó’s lives. But sometimes the Pataxó are able to kick out invaders and rebuild villages* on their regained land. 

in this video, Pataxó youtuber Tukumã Pataxó shows us traditional body paint done by artist Janarô Nuhay 

SO HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED A FEW DAYS AGO

An aviation club owner (we still dont know his name) claimed that the entirety of the Pataxó village Novos Guerreiros, which is a part of the Red Crown reservation to be his, somehow arguing that he owned the land before the Pataxó reoccupied the area. This process is called Land Repossession.

The village were notified out of the blue that there had been an judicial ruling against them and that they will be FORCED TO LEGALLY AGREE LEAVE THEIR LAND IN FIVE DAYS. So of course everyone is absolutely angered and has started a big campain to fight against this judicial ruling.

Today (27/08/2020) was the deadline the federal police gave them to peacefully leave the land. But of course they resisted and said they weren’t going anywhere. After an entire day of arguments between the caciques (chiefs) and village leaderships and the police, the Pataxó were given a week to leave their land, under the threat to face police brutality. But obviously they still aren’t going anywhere.

Pictures of federal police on Pataxó land earlier today

OVER 2.500 FAMILIES LIVE IN THAT AREA. CHILDREN, ELDERS, PREGNANT WOMEN, PEOPLE WHO WERE BACK TO THRIVING ON THEIR TRADITIONAL LAND. THEY’RE ALL GOING TO BE HOMELESS AND HAVING TO BEG FOR FOOD BECAUSE THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO HUNT FOR FOOD OR HAVE ACCESS TO THE FOOD THEY CULTIVATE. LAND LOSS IS AN IMMENSE LOSS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE.

“Pataxó people againt land repossesion! Land Sovereignty NOW“ picture taken today, posted on Thyara Pataxó’s twitter account

AND WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP??

There are a few things that the caciques and village leaderships have asked us (who are not Pataxó) to do:

First, spread the news so that everyone knows what’s going on, cause the traditional Brazilian media doesn’t care to notify this

Second, SIGN THIS PETITION: https://t.co/0fqeoifqIs?amp=1

Third, send this e-mail to the judge who ruled the order against the Pataxó land sovereignty (all info is in the google document): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sygR9_utO214UneqYCxHcjyCBTbW4fXuf5SWk2YmXI0/edit

Fourth, and this is optional, you can donate to their gofundme (originally created to help fight covid-19 related issues). Keep in mind that dollars and euro are worth A LOT in Brazil, so donating 2 dollars is SOMETHING lol: https://gogetfunding.com/pataxoyouth/ . 

You can keep up with the news through the twitter account https://twitter.com/PataxoYouth/

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP AND TIME! PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THIS!

*village is a rough translation of the portuguese “aldeia”, which is pretty much our equivalent to what you call in North America a “tribe”. But the direct translation of tribe (tribo) is considered offensive to us. Anyway, just clarifying.

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