Carried by the Terena people, Sonia Guajajara takes office amid ancestral celebration

Mencius Melo – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – Carried by the Terena people from Mato Grosso do Sul, during the “Dance of the Emma”, Sonia Guajajara assumed, in a ceremony at the Planalto Palace, this Wednesday, 11th, in Brasilia, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI). Her inauguration was preceded by the speech of her “relative” Célia Xakriabá, PSOL federal deputy for Minas Gerais. During the speech, Célia emphasized: “The pen and the chainsaw that cut down the Amazon do not cut down our ancestry.

In her speech, Sonia greeted the women present. “I want to greet all the women here present, in the person of president Dilma Rousseff”, she highlighted. She also referred to Lula (PT) and his vice-president Geraldo Alckmin (PSB). In the sequence, he talked about the native peoples: “These peoples have resisted for more than 500 years, to daily cowardly and violent attacks, as shocking and terrifying as we saw last Sunday here in Brasilia, but always less visible. From now on, this invisibility can no longer camouflage our reality”, she said.

Guajajara took the opportunity to recall a family story. She recalled the gift she got from her aunt Maria, who always believed in Sonia’s strength since her youth. “You will grow up and everything you have to say they will listen to you. This maraca will echo and you will be the spokesperson for our people,” she recalled. “Today, I want to tell you that Sonia, who in order to study worked in family homes as a nanny and a ‘housemaid’, as this profession was called at the time, is here, appointed to the position of Minister of State for the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil,” she celebrated.

Thanks

Sonia also thanked the people of São Paulo who elected her. “I also emphasize the support I received from the indigenous peoples and the population of the State of São Paulo who elected me as a federal lawmaker, affirming to all Brazilians that an indigenous woman is fully capable of contributing to the reconstruction of democracy in this country,” she said to loud applause.

In the sequence, the Minister of Indigenous Peoples highlighted some of the challenges that will be faced by the ministry. “There are serious cases of poisoning caused by mercury from mining, by agrotoxins in large agribusiness crops; the invasions in our territories; the degrading health and sanitation conditions; the increase in food insecurity that has resulted in the death of numerous indigenous children and elderly people, and the lack of protection of the territories where isolated indigenous peoples live,” she said.

At the end, Sonia Guajajara declared: “It is urgent that we promote effective indigenous citizenship. This cannot be done without the demarcation of territories, environmental and territorial protection and management, access to education, access to and permanence in public, free, quality universities, ample coverage and access to integral health care. It will not be easy to overcome 522 years in 4, but we are willing to make this moment the great resumption of the ancestral strength of the Brazilian soul and spirit. Never again a Brazil without us!”