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Preserving culture through strength

Awa Guaja literacy class. Such classes help preserve and strengthen indigenous culture [CAFOD]

As large-scale farming and logging cuts into the Amazon, indigenous groups are increasingly under threat. Literacy and awareness training helps ensure their rights are protected

One of Brazil’s last nomadic peoples, the Awa Guaja, have seen more than half their population wiped out since 1950 - from around 800 people to just 350 today.

The expansion of large-scale agro-business and infrastructure projects in Brazil has cut right through the heartlands of the Awa people.

Between 1976 and 1980, the attempted resettlement by FUNAI (the government body for indigenous affairs) of 91 Awa people led to the death of 67 of them from flu contracted from people outside the Awa communities.

In a country the size of Brazil, how is it that this small group of people can be so persecuted and experience such violence? Why is the only material possession that they need to ensure their existence, a small piece of land on which to live in peace, continuously denied to them?

Clare Dixon, CAFOD

The few groups of Awa Guaja that survive owe their lives to their ability to move further into the forest and adapt to life in isolated areas of the Amazon.

As more new roads and infrastructure are built, the agricultural frontier has advanced even further into their homelands in the Amazon rainforest.

Increased contact with the outside world continues to jeopardise the survival of these small communities, which may be made up of as few as four people, and usually no more than 30.

Deaths from violent attacks and exposure to new illnesses from outsiders continue to reduce their number further.

Some attacks on indigenous people in the Amazon have been linked to illegal logging. [CAFOD]

Although the Awa people have had their land legally demarcated and registered, they still face persecution, invasion and exploitation of their land. They experience abuse and intimidation on a daily basis.

CAFOD partner CIMI-MA (Conselho Indigenista Missionário - Maranhão)reported the attempted murder of three indigenous Awa Guaja in May 2007 alone.

Such attacks are almost invariably linked to the relentless advance of illegal logging and hunting into indigenous territory.

Preserving culture, strengthening communities

Head of CAFOD's Latin America section, Clare Dixon explains how the Awa people live simply and sustainably on their land.

“They hunt using traditional methods with bow and arrow, they only kill what they need to survive. Meanwhile their own survival is increasingly threatened by the ‘Caraiba’ (‘the white men’) with guns.”

“In a country the size of Brazil, how is it that this small group of people can be so persecuted and experience such violence?

"Why is the only material possession that they need to ensure their existence, a small piece of land on which to live in peace, continuously denied to them?”

They hunt using traditional methods with bow and arrow, they only kill what they need to survive. Meanwhile their own survival is increasingly threatened by the ‘Caraiba’ (‘the white men’) with guns

Clare Dixon, CAFOD

CIMI-MA works with the Awa people, providing literacy training and raising awareness of their rights in the Awa Guaja language and in Portuguese, as well as healthcare education, self sufficiency and land rights.

Speaking and writing the Awa language will help preserve and strengthen their culture, and also ensure that young people grow up preserving their traditions and retaining a sense of pride in their communities.

The young Awa Guaja people learn to write their own language first. But learning Portuguese is also important to ensure that they can communicate with the wider Brazilian society.

Through literacy classes and participation in other CIMI-MA projects such as the campaign for "Awa Livre", which focuses on the survival and preservation of the Awa land, the Awa people become active in the defence of their own land.

They are beginning to understand their rights under the constitution, and now campaign for further recognition to secure protection from persecution and ensure their very survival.

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