Main challenges

Capítulo 15.

Main challenges

There are not enough words to describe the events affecting Brazil in recent years. During the course of this study, the country was going through one of the worst political, economic, health, social, and ethical crises in its history. In the midst of these setbacks, Indigenous peoples and their lands have been targeted by political and economic interests, and are under permanent attack by the Jair Bolsonaro government. Some respondents even suggested that this would be the worst time to conduct such a project.

In order to prevent the interviews from being hijacked by current fears and anxieties and to try to include other events that took place before this government came into power, participants were asked to share their strongest and most striking memories of the past decade. Not surprisingly, some interviews revolved around the serious threats currently affecting Brazil. Others mentioned facts related to our gigantic crisis at some stage.

Although not as an exhaustive list, the challenges that were most frequently mentioned by interested and engaged audiences are briefly described here: Bolsonaro, politics and politicians, violence against Indigenous peoples, environmental collapse, fake news and disinformation, and agribusiness as a locomotive of the Brazilian economy. It is not by chance that all these issues are interconnected.

Photo credit: Reproduction from Instagram

For some of the respondents, preventing Jair Bolsonaro from perpetuating his rule was a top priority. Interested and engaged audiences are still perplexed by his popularity. They feared a coup, and showed scepticism about our chances of holding him accountable for his crimes. Even among non-engaged audiences, the current government was identified as a risk to the future of Indigenous peoples.

On top of our very serious economic crisis, the dismantling of Indigenous, environmental, cultural, and social policies, Brazil's discredit in the international arena, and everything else that Bolsonaro has done, he has also been accused of several crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, including crimes against humanity. International pressure and the 2022 elections were often described as the only potential solutions by some of the respondents. Still, some of them did not fail to point out that, even if Bolsonaro loses, we will still have to deal with his heritage: ‘Bolsonarism’.

Several participants showed great concern about the country's environmental destruction, especially with the consecutive records of deforestation in the Amazon, the lack of punishment for extremely serious environmental crimes, and the advance of illegality and criminality in the forest.

Violence against Indigenous peoples, and the increased deforestation on Indigenous lands, the expansion of mining in Yanomami and Munduruku territories, and the record killing of Indigenous people were the most widely used examples to illustrate the seriousness of the situation we are going through. A minority expressed frustration and anguish at the weakening and greater stigmatisation of social movements, and at the spread of a stronger elite and an ‘agro lifestyle’ in the Cerrado and in the Amazon — including young people from traditional communities.

In 2022, some bills of law aimed at legalising some activities that are currently illegal, such as land grabbing and mining in indigenous lands, are among the priorities on the government's legislative agenda.

Photo credit: Al Jazeera

Evangelical missions advancing into Indigenous territories and the greater power of evangelical fundamentalists, particularly in politics and the media, was another frequently mentioned challenge. In early 2022, federal congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP) became head of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front at the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil's Lower House. Occasionally, respondents mentioned a diversity of profiles among evangelicals and the difficulty and importance of not generalising them, as well as the need to expand dialogue and form alliances with them.

Fake news and disinformation were the challenges about which respondents felt the most disoriented and insecure to comment, not knowing how to find pathways or solutions. Some people talked about indigenous people resisting vaccination as a result of fake news, or mentioned social media posts about "fake Indigenous people" and the "PT Indigenous groups".

"It's not just the actions: the culture war that Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters are promoting in the country via social media is also genocidal."(International donor)

"It's not just the actions: the culture war that Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters are promoting in the country via social media is also genocidal."

Photo credit: The Guardian

With nearly 2 million views and over 180,000likes, Cortina de Fumaça [Smokescreen], a film in which ‘people are interviewed about their relationship with Funai and Indigenous people themselves talk about how Indigenous culture has been harmed by environmental NGOs’ was one of the ten most posted videos on Telegram. The film was produced by Brasil Paralelo [Parallel Brazil], the so-called ‘right-wing Netflix’.

The motto of Rede Globo’s campaign "Agro is Pop" was ironically cited by several respondents criticising the claim that ‘agribusiness is the locomotive of the Brazilian economy’.

The agribusiness sector, which currently accounts for 7% of Brazil's gross domestic product (GDP), or around 25% if the entire chain is included, employs around 19 million workers, that is, 20% of the country's so-called employed population. The Brazil of commodities is the same one in which 55.2% of households, or 116.8 million people, faced some degree of food insecurity at the end of 2020.

It is also number 3 in the world in the use of agricultural pesticides. Agricultural activities are also responsible for the largest share of all greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil: 73% in 2020. São Félix do Xingu, in the northern state of Pará, is the municipality that has the largest cattle herd in the country (2.4 million heads), and ranks number 1 in greenhouse gas emissions. The agribusiness sector holds enormous economic and political power. The Agriculture Parliamentary Front, now composed of 244 deputies and 39 senators, is indirectly financed by some of the main agribusiness companies. It was cited in many interviews as an unbeatable political force, and one of the main and most active opponents of Indigenous territorial rights.

Photo credit: France 24

Many highlighted a lack of confidence in politics, which is currently ‘driven by their own interests’, ‘corrupt’, ‘sexist’ and ‘oblivious to the needs and demands of society’, which ‘keeps us stuck in backwardness’, attached to an ‘excluding development model’, and ‘profoundly racist’. Other people, especially among interested but non-engaged audiences, stressed the need to form wider fronts, claiming that it is essential that ‘these issues are not seen only as left-wing agendas’ or as ‘limited to the identity agenda’.

Most respondents do not think it is possible to make substantial progress unless Brazil overcomes the challenge of ranking among the worst in the world in quality of education (with very low investment in the sector, especially in the most vulnerable regions and territories). Education was identified as key to reducing ignorance and distances, bridging gaps, deconstructing prejudice, and fighting racism.

Most respondents who mentioned this problem highlighted the need for the effective implementation of Law 11,645/2008, which made the study of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous history and culture mandatory in elementary and secondary schools, both public and private. A small group believe that, more importantly than providing teaching materials, it would be critical to prioritise interaction, exchanges, and collaboration projects involving non-indigenous and Indigenous students, even if they took place remotely. These were described as "truly transformative experiences".

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