https://futuress.org/magazine/becoming-savage/
“Jerá’s activism and educational militancy have been pivotal in reclaiming Guarani’s ancestral territories and fighting for the maintenance of the nhandereko (their traditional modes of existence) in her village, especially through the strengthening of the autonomy and food security of the Guarani Mbya people.”
- Indigenous cultures
- Translation
- Anger: “All the bad things that are happening on planet Earth come from civilized people; people who are not, in theory, ‘savages’.”
- “If we did an anthropological study about your culture, we would then have the adequate qualifications and greater legitimacy to convince many people to become savage—not so intellectual, not so important. You would then face the everyday risk of being killed, of watching everything you love burn to the ground: your homes, your families, your children. But overall, at the end of it, you would be better people.”
- Lost traditional foods – so many varieties, and the space to grow. Fighting for their land. Important for biodiversity and ecology, but also for culture, taste, heritage. Extinction of species; extinction of cultures. “If we work on Guarani food autonomy and sovereignty, we will keep our people strong; that is our aim.”
- local, food autonomy, sovereignty
- Working alongside white systems – learning portuguese, getting state grants, but then always putting it back into the community, and separating themselves when necessary: “When I was nine years old, I joined your culture in order to study it. In the beginning, it was very painful.”
- “Even though I held a stable position as a teacher of the community, one upon which I could easily retire, I decided to stop. It was from that moment on that I was able to strengthen my own discourse, and to live up to the things I said when I was still a teacher. Back then, I shared my wage with the community; it was never just for myself. But still, I would be seen as a civil servant, a person who owned things and would have access to things that most people wouldn’t. Things are different now, and I am able to show that I can live just like my mom and dad used to, like my grandparents did, without a wage from the State.”
- Need to find a way to work together: “I think that many of the Juruá want to fight, many Juruá cry too, they are also angry. We just don’t know how to unite, how to join forces, how to join our studies and reflections; to fight hand in hand to protect our immense nature that is essential—not only for Brazil, but for the entire planet.”
Beautiful illustrations to accompany it: documentation of the women leading this struggle: land, farming, care, education, campaigning.
http://carolinacaycedo.com/banner-series-2010
“the artwork aims to visualize the women who are fighting not only against natural extractivism, but also against a patriarchal structure—the two struggles are inseparable.”
