Davi
Kopenawa, a shaman of the indigenous Yanomami tribe in the Brazilian
Amazon, walks down a short hallway toward the computer to Skype with me.
In his 50s, Kopenawa wears a white, long-sleeve crew neck tucked into
khaki slacks. Several strings of small, black beads adorn his neck, and
his dark hair is combed neatly across his forehead, pushed behind his
ears.
He's
visiting the San Francisco offices of Survival International, an
indigenous rights group that has worked with the Yanomami since the
1970s — and with Kopenawa himself since the '80s. This is only the
fourth time he has been to the U.S.
Fiona
Watson, Survival's research director, sits next to him to translate. In
addition to his native language, Kopenawa can speak Portuguese nearly
fluently.
"In
my Portuguese language, it's bom dia — good morning," he says. His
voice is calm and direct, and he clears his throat softly before
answering.
He
discusses a new technology initiative to help Kopenawa and his
community document rights abuses committed by outsiders. Spearheaded by
the Survival team, the TribesDirect project will set up a solar-powered,
satellite Wi-Fi network in Kopenawa's community, with a camera the
Yanomami tribe can use to quickly relay important messages. Survival is
designing easy-to-use software, and will provide training to members of
the community.
The project is the first of its kind — a unique, albeit controversial, way to amplify indigenous voices.
In
recent years, outsiders have posed a renewed threat to indigenous
peoples in Brazil, including territory colonization, gold mining,
logging and disease. The Brazilian government has been accused of
blatantly disregarding indigenous rights, failing to address outsider
abuses against the dozens of tribes in the Brazilian Amazon.
The
idea for TribesDirect is to spread awareness and report these rights
abuses in near-real time, and to help the Yanomami follow and comment on
tribal issues across the globe.
If
successful, Survival hopes other indigenous peoples around the world
will be able to adopt this technology model, allowing them to speak for
themselves to an international audience, encourage governments to take
action and, ultimately, change the way outsiders treat them.
Among
the atrocities committed against the Yanomami and their land, Kopenawa
cites cattle ranchers, or fazendeiros, who "are prepared to use firearms
against the indigenous people. They use pistoleiros [gunmen] and they
also cut down thousands of trees. They pollute the springs, and they
take out all the natural plants and vegetation," he says.
The
Yanomami are also worried about big mining companies. More than 1,000
miners are currently working illegally on Yanomami land, according to
Survival, transmitting diseases such as malaria and polluting the area.
Over
the past several years, the National Congress of Brazil has considered
proposed bills that would open up indigenous territories for mining. The
current legal framework for mining dates back to the 1960s.
There's
also the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform
(INCRA), a government agency that has been accused of some of the worst
deforestation and land divisions, not to mention rural workers who carve
roads throughout the territory.
"The
most dangerous things of all are roads. They use huge tractors, which
literally scrape the skin of the earth. They pollute all the streams,
and they destroy lots and lots of trees.
We
call their machines 'giant beasts,' because they open up everything.
Once you have the big road, it enables colonization of our land and
opening up lots of smaller roads," Kopenawa says.
And
although SESAI, Brazil’s indigenous health department, has improved
health conditions, tribes still face low-quality services and a lack of
universalized medicines and vaccines. Ida Pietricovsky Oliveira, a
communication specialist at UNICEF, tells Mashable that the 2013 SESAI
Management Report cited several alleged problems, including insufficient
data for planning, difficulty buying supplies and inadequate training
for intercultural care.
The
National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), the Brazilian government body
responsible for policies and protection of indigenous peoples, did not
respond to a request for comment.
When
the Yanomami experience such issues, they can use TribesDirect to
communicate with the outside world, Survival's director Stephen Corry
tells Mashable. It enables someone like Kopenawa to comment on
challenges other tribal people are experiencing, especially if his
community moves. The Yanomami people are nomadic, staying in one place
for about two years and then moving elsewhere.
They
live in round, communal houses called shabonos, which can fit hundreds
of people divided into families. Shabonos are spread anywhere between 12
and 125 miles away from each other, so they can occupy a large amount
of space and store plenty of food.
We don't live like the city people, where you all live on top of each other," Kopenawa says.
It's in one of these shabonos where TribesDirect will likely be set up.
As
the largest relatively isolated indigenous tribe in Amazonia, there are
between 30,000 and 35,000 Yanomami living in more than 200 villages
along the border of Brazil and Venezuela. The population is made up of
various groups, some of which are still considered "uncontacted" — their
existence is known, but they have never had peaceful contact with
outsiders (or, sometimes, even with other Yanomami communities).
Kopenawa
is president of Hutukara, an indigenous association founded in 2004
that comprises 12 Yanomami communities. Indigenous associations like
Hutukara are common, including the Coordination of the Indigenous
Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), which is the main
organization of indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon.
"We
know how to work together. Hutukara plays a very important role for the
Yanomami. That is because Hutukara is a weapon for our people to defend
the Yanomami's rights," he says.
A
Survival spokesperson tells me that Hutukara members will likely be the
ones to use TribesDirect, becoming the project's very first tech
pioneers. All footage will go to Survival first, whereupon the
organization will encourage viewers to take action on its website. For
example, viewers will be able to send letters to the Brazilian president
about the gold miners in Yanomami territory.
"We
are going to try this," Kopenawa says of the TribesDirect project.
Survival only just revealed the project to him during his U.S. visit in
early May. But he still has speak to his community about it.
"I
think this equipment is a real weapon for our defense. It will send
messages everywhere — our message ... It's like an experiment. If it
works, it will help us communicate with the cities and the whole world,"
he says.
Many
Yanomami, especially the younger people who sometimes travel to local
cities, have encountered technology before. Communities talk to each
other via a network of radios (radiofonia), health workers use
microscopes to test for malaria and Hutukara's offices have computers
for letters and newsletters. And TribesDirect is visual; it doesn't
require the user to be literate, and it's less expensive than setting up
radio equipment.
They're
living in the 21st century just as anybody else is, just differently,"
Corry says. "I have absolutely no doubt that ... once the problems are
sorted, [it] will be no harder for an average, younger Yanomami than it
will be for anybody else [in the world]."
They've
already experienced some hiccups, though. Survival doesn't have a
technical backup team to help with testing; it took them a while to
realize the first iteration of the equipment was broken.
"The
Amazon is extremely humid, and there are a lot of insects that tend to
get into delicate electronics. The gear has to be able to withstand all
that," he says.
Because
of these glitches and the NGO's limited funds to replace the equipment,
the timeframe for the TribesDirect project is taking at least three
times longer than Corry would have liked. He hopes to have everything up
and running within six months.
And
for anyone worrying that introducing such technology will disrupt the
Yanomami culture, Corry argues that since it's completely under the
community's control, TribesDirect can only benefit its users.
"They
can switch it on, they can switch it off. If they've got nothing to
say, then they don't say anything. A people's culture is not shaken by
the presence of some kind of external artifact. It's the ... outsiders
stealing their resources, stealing their land, stealing their labor, and
often just killing them all, and bringing diseases that kill," he says.
When
I tell Bruce Albert, a French anthropologist who has worked with the
Yanomami since 1975, about the TribesDirect project, he says he doesn't
see any immediate drawbacks. He has faith in the younger generation of
Yanomami, and tells me in an email that they've attended bilingual
schools since the 1990s and, as a result, have developed a strong grasp
of modern technology.
"Many
of them have emails and Facebook pages," says Albert, who is also the
research director at the Research Institute for Development in Paris and
associate researcher at the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) in São
Paulo.
ISA worked with Hutukara to help set up the network of radios in 18 strategic regions of Yanomami land.
"Today
more than ever they have to count on international support to
counterbalance the very unequal power relations in which their society
is embedded," Albert says. He believes the project has potential to help
indigenous groups around the world, but it would take time and
widespread effort.
But
is technology really the best way to spread awareness and protect
indigenous rights? Albert says there isn't a single best way to do so,
but the more advocates galvanize the greater public, the better. Books,
documentaries, academic writings and articles are still important, he
posits, but technology is a necessary addition.
"The
Internet is changing everything, shortening time and space, and the
Survival project is a very clever way to adapt the struggle...to this
new context. Quick and direct access to social and traditional media
from the field can be...a fundamental weapon for new Yanomami
generations to defend their land, culture and way of life," he says.
More than anything, Kopenawa wants the world's support, and for people to understand what is really going on in his home.
"We
Yanomami people don't want to die," he says. "We want the government to
respect us and to guarantee our lands, because our land is ours."
Posted by : Gizmeon
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