Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Indigenous representation in political power. This is the space that Sonia Guajajara and Célia Xakriabá are strengthening in the Brazilian National Congress. These two indigenous women were elected as federal deputies in the political elections that took place on October 2. Read below the interview made with each one of them after the election results.
Sonia Guajajara is originally from the Araribóia, Indigenous Land in Maranhão (Brazil). However, she ran for federal deputy in São Paulo as this state has a huge responsibility to preserve the Brazilian biomes, especially the Amazon, due to the great economic power located there. Her candidacy was strategically aligned with the Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – APIB, which saw in her the opportunity to have a representative of the native peoples in a prominent place in national politics. This is the first time that São Paulo has elected an indigenous woman, and Sonia knows the responsibility she has in her hands.
How do you feel now that you have been elected as a Federal Deputy?
I am extremely happy and proud to see that São Paulo has answered the call to village politics. My constituents elected me to honour the mission of bringing the strength and ancestry of indigenous peoples to Congress. I will make every vote count. And I will spare no effort to guarantee the demarcation of indigenous lands, the protection of the Atlantic Forest, the Amazon and all Brazilian biomes, defending agro-ecology to fight hunger and guarantee food without poison on every Brazilian’s plate. Finally, I feel very happy and proud to know that today I am part of the group of women who occupy a seat in the National Congress fighting for the mother of all struggles: the fight for Mother Earth!
My candidacy has always had the objective of fulfilling this role that history has assigned to us – being not in search of fulfilling a personal project, but work as a historical agent committed to a collective project. It is part of it to increase the number of indigenous people in the National Congress. Our aim is to bring our voices, demands and contributions to the construction of a more democratic future, plural and truly engaged with the real needs of the Brazilian people.
Why is the political representativeness of indigenous peoples more relevant than ever?
I respect the different ways of life, but I understand that the current economic model, made by non-indigenous people, is completely predatory. And that’s why it’s important to respect indigenous rights, intrinsically linked to the environment. Only in this way we can guarantee the future, because the native peoples are 5% of the population who take care of 80% of the biomes on the planet. This is UN data, underestimated even by specialists. We have a climate emergency! It is about fighting today, getting involved today, because indigenous representation in political parties is necessary for us to have a voice at the decision-making table.
Which environmental regeneration projects do you intend to approve in the Congress?
We have many ideas, but first we need to confront the National Congress, which is highly conservative and developmentalist. We know that the vast majority of senators and congressmen elected will continue to guide the legalization of destruction through access and exploitation of indigenous territories. What is required now are not ideas, but the articulation contrary to this stance. It is strongly needed to create a space that promotes a new political and environmental awareness – either in Congress or in society. The result of the elections shows us that Brazilian society is not yet prepared for a change. Therefore, it is necessary that this change also starts outside the Parliament, so that society becomes more aware and more responsible for life and for the future. We are only planting a seed. There is no point in dreaming that we will change this situation in the short term. We are planting a seed, so that in the future we can harvest a new human consciousness about what is urgent and what is really destructive for the planet and for human beings. We, indigenous people, were elected to confront and contradict the current Congress, which is completely backward.
We know that you support candidate Lula and, if he is elected, these issues will certainly be discussed. But what scenario do you envision for Brazil if candidate Jair Bolsonaro wins the presidential elections?
I will be in Congress, so we will continue to plant our seed and confront him at the Palácio do Planalto. Have no doubt about that. But we have no way of predicting whether or not we will be able to validate projects with positive socio-environmental impact, should Jair Bolsonaro win. We will find out by doing. We know that within Congress there is a strong base allied to him, which we will certainly oppose, charting paths towards greater socio-environmental awareness and responsibility. But there is no way to predict what may or may not happen. We continue to defend what we believe in.
What is your greatest involvement in supporting Lula in this second round of the presidential elections?
Our committee is already organised to be a support for electing Lula as President and Fernando Haddad as São Paulo State’s Governor. In Cocar Houses, they are organising public acts with elected PSOL parliamentarians in order to sensitise the population to engage in this political campaign for true democracy. We see this as a co-responsibility for a new government project.
What is your message to people who are choosing to vote for Bolsonaro?
It is essential that the Brazilian people go to the polls in this second round to elect Lula. It is urgent to put an end to this very dark period in the history of our democracy. The struggle of the indigenous peoples goes beyond the electoral process. Our struggle is permanent. That is why we strongly support the vote for Lula, to guarantee our right to remain mobilised without the State naming us as enemies. Lula is the path against hatred, retrocession and authoritarianism. To elect Lula is to vote for democracy!
What dialogues would you like to establish with Europe for your cause?
My cause? I do not have a cause. I fight for the indigenous peoples’ cause, the cause of the environment, the cause of life. We already have a link with the European Parliament, which has been traced since my participation inside the indigenous movement. Now we are going to continue from another spot, that is to say, what I used to do as part of the civil society, I will now do as a parliamentarian. All the work we did within the indigenous movement was to get projects approved in Congress. But now, I am one of the deciding votes.
Sonia‘s final message: Urgent Call
This is a critical moment with an urgent struggle that we are living in Brazil. The support of the international community is important for the indigenous cause and environmental issues, which we have many obstacles to resolve. Brazilian future needs a massive engagement to elect Lula. After all, we are still facing democracy versus fascism. It is urgent that everyone gets involved in this campaign.
Célia Xakriabá is originally from the Xakriabá village located within the territory of Minas Gerais (Brazil), for which she was elected Federal Deputy. She holds a Master’s degree in sustainable development from the University of Brasilia and is a doctoral student in anthropology at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. She is one of the founders of the National Articulation of Indigenous Women Warriors of Ancestrality. Inside the Minas Gerais Secretary for Education, she collaborated with the opening of indigenous and quilombola schools and the reopening of rural schools throughout the state. She is also the first indigenous federal deputy elected in Minas Gerais.
Many Bolsonaro voters are actually against Lula and vote for the right-wing candidate out of retaliation. If you had the opportunity to drink a coffee with this voter, what would you say to him or her?
Today I woke up thinking about this. Our victory has an important balance because it has a different characteristic: we are indigenous women who announce the climate emergency, the emergency of life and the Politics of Affection. Most of the voters of the PT Federal Deputies voted for Lula, however, most of the voters who voted for us were women and they chose Simone Tebet in the first round. Now, one of my focuses is to talk to these women and show the importance of supporting Lula, because even if Simone has announced this support, for female voters it is not automatic. A portion of the youth who elected me because of the climate emergency, voted for Ciro Gomes for president. So it is very important to go back to the streets and understand what their opinion is now. I heard countless times the following phrase: I don’t want to discuss the office of president with you, because I vote for you as Federal Deputy, but for President it’s Bolsonaro. I thought: but is it possible to unite these two choices? In fact, one of the reflections that I had already programmed myself to do after the elections is: if a portion of Bolsonaro’s voters understood the indigenous emergency, why hasn’t the other portion understood it yet?
What is your focus in this second round of the presidential election?
We now have the responsibility to return to the streets to, obviously, reinforce the importance of electing Lula to those who have already voted for him, but, above all, the focus is to dialogue with those who have not voted yet. And in my experience, some people only listen to us through the Politics of Affection, and are not even open to dialogue through the politics of argument. The current government is a fascist government that propagates the politics of hate. And the political campaign has shown this, especially for the president. The aggressiveness present in audios and videos of Bolsonaro voters are expressions of hate. It’s scary! But I managed to revert some votes not by the politics of argument, but by the Politics of Affection. One of them was in the city of Uberlândia, where the voting rate is very high for Bolsonaro. In the first rally we held there, these voters threw poison and dirty objects with feces at us during the marches. I got physically ill from the amount of poison that was thrown at us. But the last time I returned to this same city, we met with a young man on the street who intemperately approached us saying he was a Bolsonarist. He aggressively argued the reason for his choice, in spite of his mother who listened to him and contradicted him. We continued to talk, and his tone of voice remained the same. But there was a spectral change when I started to cycle with him, and then we played football.
So what is the Politics of Affection?
The Politics of Affection happens not just through argument, but when we disarm ourselves of our ideas and movements towards the other. Because we usually work for people to come closer to us, but it only happens after we move towards them. The word from behind is what guides the word from the front. And this way of doing politics goes far beyond discourse, because the driving force is our presence and our connection with the other.
Where did the Politics of Affection come from? I am moved by this strategy, because I feel that people do not feel seen and are easily sold to hate speeches.
My supporters often suggested that I needed to have a more edgy and imposing tone of voice in my speeches. But since the beginning of my struggle, I have always made myself heard not by the height with which I spoke, but by the power of the word and the speed in which it reaches people’s hearts. In the campaign, I said several times that not fighting with the same enemy’s weapon does not mean that we are disarmed. Of course, at some moments our voice needs to echo in a different way from this one, but it is not necessary to be aggressive. I repeat, not fighting with the same enemy’s weapon does not mean that we are disarmed. We need to defeat ecocide, genocide, ethnocide. But the biggest fight is that of lovecide. People are losing the capacity to love, and the Politics of Affection is the antidote, because it disarms the relationship blocks. In attempts at dialogue, many voters come armed with hateful arguments. But it is with our simple way of welcoming that they felt truly welcomed. I am very happy to witness situations like this, which have culminated in joyful and hopeful statements from our voters. They have shown high engagement during the campaign, feeling co-responsible in the process of mobilising other voters. They got emotional with our songs and dances during the rallies and celebrated the hope that the Politics of Affection brings. For me, the biggest border that exists is not between states, between countries, between continents. Instead, the biggest border that exists is between people. And we have broken this border with the Politics of Affection, which is not an utopia! It is real, and we are living it now. Why is it possible? Because people are realising that we cannot cure evil with the same disease. The active principle that heals it is the strength to walk the path of healing ourselves. I experienced this during the campaign, and I saw people in public squares who aggressively declared themselves Bolsonarists reconsidering their vote after weaving a moment of affection with us. In these exchanges, I reminded everyone that before the green and yellow Brazil, there was the Brazil of the cocar that was red – colour of the soil, of the skin and of the indigenous people’s blood. Also, I always say that today we have a climate emergency that requires an economic transformation. They all had moved and affirmed their support for our government project.
This positioning is human before being political. Is the climate emergency also, above all, a human emergency?
Yes, and people need to be sensitized to this cause and return to their affection for themselves, for others and for mother earth. If they are still not sensitized by affection, they will be by the emergency.
What is the relevance of indigenous peoples in this context?
The UN has already recognized it. We are the solution number one to stop the climate crisis. And if civil society doesn’t recognize this now, the planet will end for us, but also for all non-indigenous people, their parents, children and friends. We are the last generation that can stop the climate crisis, and we are already doing it. We are 5% of the world’s population and we protect 80% biodiversity. We are the minority and we are doing what is best for the planet right now. It will be the same within the National Congress. There, we may not do most things, but we will do the most important things. When politicians and the civil society that elects them do not prioritise the climate emergency and the protection of indigenous territories, they are destroying our lives, but also theirs.
You were elected by the state of Minas Gerais. How do you see the relevance of your territory within the climate emergency?
All biomes matter. We don’t identify ourselves by geographical territory, but by biomes. We say we are from the Cerrado biome, the Amazon biome, the Atlantic Forest biome. We have decolonised this theme both nationally and internationally, because most of the projects and investment funds sent to Brazil are destined solely for Amazonia. This practice, dressed up in environmental garb, centres the debate in a colonised way prioritising economic interests. The Cerrado is the second largest biome in Brazil, with more than 50% of its native vegetation deforested. In Minas Gerais, the biggest environmental crime of the last decade was committed with the Mariana Dam. All biomes matter.
Do we have to worry about saving Planet Earth? Or should we worry about saving ourselves first?
I have always said that there are not five minutes left to save the Planet. There are five minutes left to save people. It is urgent to understand that it is not the Earth that needs us, we need it. It is not the waters that need us, we need water to survive. The same for the mountains, the forests, the animals and all biomes. Faced with the research on the possibility of living on Mars, I ask everybody: do you believe that we are going to take care of what we are going to have if we don’t take care of what we already have? Wouldn’t it be easier to take care of what we already have? The fight now is not only to heal the planet, but, above all, it is about not making it even more sick. To be human is, more than ever, to be a river, to be the earth, to be the animals. If we don’t become the planet right now, it will not be the planet that is gonna end. It will be us. I also ask: if we then had to go and live on Mars, but there were only two thousand places there, would we indigenous people be chosen? I guess not. That is necropolitics, where a small group chooses who will live and who will die. I don’t want that. I want a planet where we all fit, and on earth we all fit. It is urgent to convene everyone to save our species.
