Indigenous activist Ângela Kaxuyana debates on how to protect local peoples’ rights in the context of an expanding agroindustrial frontier.
Paulo Paulino Guajajara, a Brazilian indigenous land defender, was killed on November 1st. The murder is the latest outcome of an enduring and extremely violent conflict between loggers and indigenous people. Paulo’s death raises once more a pressing question not only in Brazil, but in the world: how to protect local peoples’ rights in the context of an expanding extractive/agroindustrial frontier?
In this talk, leaders of Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation (APIB) will debate the threats to indigenous people and what is being done about it. APIB is currently promoting the campaign “Indigenous Blood: Not a Single Drop More”, created to pressure the Brazilian government and agribusiness companies to comply with international agreements on climate change and human rights.
Dr. Natalia Buitron, research fellow in LSE's Deparment of Anthropology and LACC Associate Academic, will chair the discussion.
APIB’s lecturers will speak in Portuguese with translation to English.
The event is in collaboration with the LSESU Brazilian Society and Survival International the global movement for indigenous and tribal peoples.
Speakers bios:
Dr. Natalia Buitron’s research explores political subjectivities in indigenous South America, specifically how broader political and economic forms interweave with moral selfhood, sociality and religion in daily life. She is a regional specialist of Latin America, with particular focus on Greater Amazonia. Building on her doctoral research, her book project titled ‘Indigenous Development: Territorial Autonomy and Vernacular Statecraft in Millennial Amazonia’ explores the remaking of indigenous landscapes and institutions in articulation with the modern state
Ângela Kaxuyana is a Brazilian indigenous activist of the indigenous territory Kaxuyana Tunayana. She is a member of the Coordination of the Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) and of the National Indigenous Foundation (Funai) in the Amazonic region. Angela has a wide experience with indigenous policies and is one of the leaders who actively participate in the struggle to retake Indigenous Lands in Pará and Amazonas.
Célia Xakriabá is an Anthropology researcher and professor and has already worked for Minas Gerais’s state Education Office. Having acted as an activist since she was 13 years old, Celia fights for a larger presence of indigenous women in key social institutions, such as the government and universities.
Erisvan Guajajara is an indigenous native of the Arariboia Indigenous Land in Brazil, who is engaged in the struggle to occupy the media spaces, bringing the silenced voice of the original indigenous peoples to the world.
Photo credits (speaker images and cover photo): Erisvan Bone Guajajara and Célia Xakriabá, Wikipedia, 2018.