Brazil's Indigenous Munduruku people hack their way through the Amazon forest with machetes, marking the borders of their ancestral lands on a mission to finish a task that the Brazilian government had not. - REUTERS
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00In Brazil's Amazon, these indigenous Mandaruku warriors are marking the borders of their
00:06ancestral lands with signs that read, federal government, Soare Mayubu territory, protected
00:12land.
00:15It's been a decade since the Mandaruku cleared their territory's borders, enough time for
00:20the world's largest rainforest to erase their work.
00:25It's a tough job, and one that Chief Juarez Sá says is the government's responsibility.
00:33This is not our job.
00:34It's the government's obligation to demarcate indigenous lands, but they are not doing it.
00:40We have been struggling to protect this land for 25 years, but we are continuing to demarcate
00:45it.
00:48It is already demarcated, and we continue to clean the borders to keep them alive.
00:53The formal demarcation of an indigenous territory is a crucial step in securing the protections
00:59guaranteed in Brazil's constitution.
01:02Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vowed to resume the process of recognizing
01:08new reservations, which had been halted under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
01:15Since taking power, Lula's government has recognized 10 new reservations.
01:21Sixty-two indigenous territories are waiting for his signature, and about 200 more are
01:26under study or with defined borders but still unprotected by the government.
01:32Brazil's Indigenous Affairs Agency says it is short-staffed but is working to establish
01:37the boundaries.
01:40But Lula's promises have drawn backlash from groups that say more roads, railways and power
01:45plants are needed in the Amazon to generate jobs.
01:49The Suare Mayubu territory includes some 690 square miles of jungle on the banks of
01:55the Tapajos River, one of Brazil's only major rivers without a hydroelectric dam.
02:02In 2016, an 8,000-megawatt project that could have flooded most of the territory was shelved
02:09by Brazil's Federal Environmental Agency for failing to consult the Munduruku or provide
02:14proper impact studies.
02:16They also face an indirect threat from government plans to build a 620-mile railway for grain
02:22exports.
02:23Backed by farmers and multinational grain traders, indigenous leaders fear the project
02:29could make access easier.
02:31The territory has also faced rising invasions from illegal loggers and gold miners.
02:38Activist and tribe member Alessandra Munduruku says the lack of demarcation encourages them.
02:44We are not giving up.
02:47The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, often the government, governments enter and leave.
02:54They have an obligation to look at us, an obligation to look at the indigenous people.
02:59We are not begging here.
03:01We are just wanting our rights, and that is always our right, especially land.