Indigenous Rights Organizations Come of Age

On August 9, 2008, the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, Amazonian Indigenous Peoples across eastern Peru, organized by the Inter-ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), held a massive but peaceful demonstration. They paralyzed road and river transportation, closed a hydroelectric plant, and blocked the output of oil and gas pipelines.

A Mixed Aftermath for Peru Protests

Intense political repression and violence has continued in the wake of the June 5 protests in Peru, which resulted in the deaths of at least two dozen Indigenous people in Bagua Province of northern Peru. Violence continued in June, when government officials stormed the Petroperú oil facility in Bagua Province.

The Poetry of Politics

Haunani-Kay Trask is an Indigenous Hawaiian poet, scholar, and activist recognized in the United States and abroad for her leadership in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement and her use of the written word as one of the tools to support that movement.

The Doctor Is the Medicine

Medicine has existed as long as people have existed in the world. So, too, have the elders, who learn throughout their lives how to use medicine to help their families and communities. The elders begin their study of medicine by learning about the remedies, most of which are plants. After this, they specialize in different medical techniques.

A Passion for Pungent Paste

The Prescription for Indigenous Rights

Performing Dreams

On the morning of August 8, 1984, seven elder men in the Xavante community of Etéñhiritpa, known as Pimentel Barbosa in Portuguese, slipped quietly from their houses. Each followed the path that passes behind the arc of beehive-shaped houses, discretely making their way to the marã, a secluded forest clearing used for ritual preparations.

The Tractor Invasion

My Cerrado

The Lever of the Law

An Interview with Deborah Macedo Duprat de Britto Pereira.

The Parinai’a Still Live in the ‘Ró

Dzahadu te mo Dzahadu te mo ‘rópoto mono mono wa hã dzahadu te mo ‘rópoto mono mono wa hã dzahadu te mo Dzahadu te mo Dzahadu te mo

Saving the Cerrado

The Cerrado today is seen as an area for agro-industry and for raising cattle. To open more space for monocrop soy cultivation and cattle ranching there has been tremendous deforestation of the Cerrado. And now the government plans to produce biodiesel from sugarcane grown in this area. Mato Grosso is viewed as a state with great potential for developing the biofuels industry.

Future, Tense

One of the most significant developments in Brazilian Indigenous Peoples’ land rights took place in March, when the country’s Supreme Court issued a decision on the Raposa do Sol Indigenous territory in northern Brazil.

The Other Brazil