Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
WHO ARE WE TODAY AND WHERE ARE WE LOCATED?
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
In order to create a broad, general idea about the current situation of Indigenous
Peoples in the state of São Paulo, and their constitutional and international rights,
workshop participants drew information mostly from two topics, the new Brazilian
Constitution of 1988, and a few human rights documents. 1 In addition, some teachers
had already brought along with them different maps of their lands, whether officially
demarcated or not. Landless communities relied on city and state of São Paulo
official government maps to locate shantytowns and other urban and rural areas
inhabited by Indigenous communities.
A detailed analysis of the information in these topics and maps conducted by all
participants during the first day of the training program brought forth the creation
of Table 4.1, that organized information in columns and rows about the Indigenous
Peoples of the state of São Paulo: land demarcation, borders, population, number of
houses, distribution of teachers and health workers, languages spoken and traditions
practiced. In the last column, Alicio Terena sugested we make note of aspects that best
characterized the ethnic identity of each group in a cross-cultural situation. For example,
the Guarani baptizement of their children, the beat-stick dance of the Terena, and the
Krenak wedding were included in the last column of the table, while the Kaingang and
the Pankararu decided to further research (shown as “researching”) the subject among
their elders to best convey important cultural attributes to a wider audience.
Besides the information provided by workshop participants and the topics mentioned
above, a wide array of documents was consulted, including various National Indian
Foundation (Funai) maps in order to verify demarcation status of Indigenous areas, their
sizes and borders. The research process involved a stimulating process of cooperation
among all teachers in search for complementary information. Some of the non-
Indigenous teachers had never interacted one-on-one with Indigenous professionals or
community members at Indigenous schools or more generally on and around Indigenous
lands. This lack of interaction between Indigenous and non-Indigenous teachers was
soon identified as the main cause for the widespread misconceptions about “the Indians'
incapacity to learn Western materials.”
Área Indígena Guarani da Aldeia do Jaraguá
Indigenous Area Guarani of the Jaraguá Village
My grandfather Joaquim Augusto Martins Quarayr used to tell me that a long
time ago he lived in [the state of] Mato Grosso do Sul. At that time a marshal
went to our village and asked the people who wanted to come to São Paulo.
My grandfather saw others raising their hands and without really understanding
Continued
Search WWH ::




Custom Search