Servers and Indigenous Peoples celebrate the ‘resumption’ of FUNAI with Joenia Wapichana as president

Marcela Leiros – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – Indigenous and servants of the former National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) – now the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples – celebrated on Monday, 2, at the headquarters of the bagency, in Brasilia, what they call the “resumption” of the indigenous policy in the institution with the appointment of Joênia Wapichana as president.

Present at the event were the new minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, the cacique Raoni and the elected federal deputy Célia Xakriabá.

Provisional Measure No. 1.154, published in the Official Journal of the Union (DOU) this Monday, 2, altered the denomination of FUNAI. The agency will be presided over for the first time by an indigenous woman, the former federal lawmaker Joênia Wapichana. Until the 2022 elections, she was the only indigenous woman elected to Congress, and only the second indigenous representation in the history of the Brazilian Parliament.

At the unofficial ceremony, Wapichana said she considers Funai a challenge, but that the defence of indigenous rights is not something new to her. “I was thinking for about three days [after receiving the invitation]. Wow, Funai is a challenge. I know the history of Funai. For me it is not new. I come from Roraima and I accompanied the demarcation of indigenous lands, I participated in many demarcations”, she said.

See the arrival of Joênia Wapichana at FUNAI:

The Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, said that after four years of “persecution” by Funai of those who were in opposition to the federal government, indigenous people are now assuming a place of power. “We now take back our place, our place to take care of our people. We know that there are many challenges”, said Guajajara.

The minister further called the struggle of indigenous peoples against the violation of their rights resistance. “How many, many years we have been making this resistance, this struggle, against all this violence and violation of our rights, which even written in the Constitution have never really been respected”, she also spoke.

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Indigenous nomination

Initially, the name of Wapichana was listed to take on the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples along with Sonia Guajajara and the Councillor for the municipality of Caucaia in Ceará, Weibe Tapeba. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) decided to appoint Guajajara to the ministry, and Joênia accepted the invitation to take over Funai.

When announcing the latest ministers last week, Lula guaranteed that in addition to Funai, the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (Sesai) would also be managed by indigenous people. “They [indigenous people] are more than prepared to work on their problems and solve them”, Lula said during the announcement of the last names of his ministerial cabinet in Brasilia.