On Thursday October 18, the President of Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court (STF), Minister Carlos Ayres Britto, overruled the decision to suspend the removal of illegal occupants from theXavante Territory of Marawãitsede. Tserewamriwe, a leader from Marawãitsede, applauded the decision and stated, “Because of our struggle, the [court] decided in our favor. Now we want to recuperate all that was lost: our roots, our trees and animals. We will plant our gardens to nourish our families.”
In September, the Regional Federal Court (TRF1) suspended a May 2012 ruling that mandated the removal of illegal occupants from the Marawãitsede Xavante Indigenous Reserve in Mato Grosso state, the epicenter of Brazil’s booming soy agroindustry. This reversal came just days before the October 1 deadline for beginning the removal of invaders occupying the area.
Article by Brenda Norrell
Photos by Ben Powless
Censored News
On June 20, 2012 Indigenous people will march to deliver the Kari-Oca Declaration to world leaders. Indigenous Peoples are gathered at the Kari-Oca 2 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, as the governments and corporate profiteers attempt to place a price on nature as a commodity at the United Nations Conference on Sustainability Rio+20.
Indigenous Peoples from all regions of the world met at the “Indigenous Peoples International Conference on Sustainable Development and Self Determination,” from June 17 – 19, 2012 at the Museu da República in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is the declaration that will be delivered to world leaders at the Rio+20 Summit.
By Brenda Norrell
Photos by Ben Powless, Mohawk, IEN
Censored News
Indigenous Peoples are gathered at the Kari-Oca II Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, as the governments and corporate profiteers attempt to place a price on nature as a commodity at the United Nations Conference on Sustainability Rio+20.
On June 17, 2012, around 200 indigenous peoples from all around the world met at the Museu do Republica in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil, in order to discuss their own visions, concerns and expectations for Rio+20 and sustainable development in general in their Indigenous Peoples International Conference on Sustainable Development and Self-Determination.
On June 15, in Brazil, Indigenous people from all over the world started convening for a parallel gathering to the official United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as “Rio+20.” Gathering in Kari-Oca, an Indigenous village set up in the Rio de Janiero suburb of Jacarepagua, Indigenous delegates plan to assure that any strategies drafted by the UN contain an Indigenous perspective and respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
In December, Brazil’s Indian Agency (Fundação Nacional do Índio) approved delimitation of the 146,000 hectare Wedezé Indigenous Reserve in the state of Mato Grosso. Occupied by the Xavante people since the mid-1800s, the area was illegally sold to private interests in the 1950s and to accommodate its new owners the Indigenous residents were resettled elsewhere in the 1970s. The reserve includes the site of the historical village São Domingos, where Cultural Survival’s founder David Maybury-Lewis did ethnographic research in the 1950s.
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