“We don’t want to be wealthy with money — we are already wealthy by nature.”
Mariuza Ka’apor
August was another moment for us, Tuxa Ta Pame – the Ka’apor Governing Council — to affirm our mair project against the sarakura project that has been threatening our life and communities in the Alto Turiaçu Territory, in Maranhão, Brazil. (In ka’apor, mair is an omnipresent, omniscient being, who is wherever the ka’apor are; saracura is a bird that represents betrayal, destruction, and death.)
We held our Fourth Meeting of Self-government in the Ararorenda community, municipality of Centro do Guilherme, at the sacred place of our warrior, Sarapó Ka’apor. During three days of conversations, we looked at the path we walk, the stones we find on the way, and discussed how we remove them so we can continue advancing with more security under the guidance of MAIR, the great being of the forest that protects us, guides us, and is always with us in the struggle of resistance to continue existing.
Unlike those who chose to walk the path of the SARACURA project with falsehood, lies, greed, corruption, destruction, which leads to the death of the Ka’apor people, we have already warned our relatives that they are fattening SUCURI to eat them (in ka’apor, sucuri is a massive snake that can eat animals and people). These days have strengthened us. We look to our JUPIHU KATU HA – Ka’apor Coexistence Agreement, and our community justice based on ancestral knowledge and practices on the path of MAIR.
It is clear to us that SARACURA’’s path brings looters of our assets, such as ranchers who lease areas for pasture, logging companies, mining companies, miners, poachers, corrupt politicians, and now the US carbon capture multinational, Wildlife Works, and the US NGO Forest Trends, that persecute us, divide us, and threaten peace in our territory [in which they lack legal standing under Brazilian law]. The SARACURA project has no limits, and spells hunger, poverty and death.
We decided to maintain our collective organization, knowing how to listen, speak, and obey our culture. We talked about our mistakes and successes in our system of self-government.
We renewed our coexistence agreements because our life is in the forest
– JANDERUHÃ HA KA’A REHE — with MAIR.
For us, local elections [upcoming on 6 October] are a big lie that goes hand in hand with the SARACURA project of death and destruction. We cannot hand over our power, our weapon to the enemy. We don’t believe in elections because our life project does not fit in the ballot box. If voting changed our lives there would be no invasion of our territory, threats, persecution, and death under the current government.
We believe in MAIR, who is with us in everything and with everything in the forest. We believe in Tuxa Ta Pame, which is our self-organization, our self-government. This meeting served to strengthen our self-defense and collective protection. There are people who want to hear the noise of tractors, chainsaws …. but they are gone, and we won’t let them come back.
TUXA TA PAME – KA’APOR GOVERNING COUNCIL
