Panará, 20 years after the return
The epic journey of the indigenous people who were on the verge of extinction, survived, recovered and fulfilled their dream of returning to their ancestral land, from where they had been banishe
The Panará people are celebrating. Joyful and festive by nature, these indigenous people have a special reason to celebrate the month of October 2017. It has been 20 years since they returned to a stretch of their traditional land on the Iriri River, along the state line between Mato Grosso and Pará, after a long forced exile in the Xingu Indigenous Park (Mato Grosso state). They are the main characters in a saga that started in the 1970’s and could have ended in their demise during the construction of highway BR-163 (connecting Cuiabá to Santarém). Their victory will go down in indigenous history and indigenism as the first indigenous people in Brazil to win compensation from the Federal Government for pain, suffering and material losses. Initially known as Kreenacarore (Giants), they would only later be recognized by their real name: Panará.
The return journey began in 1995 and ended in 1997. At that point, there were 178 Panará on hand to inaugurate their first village, named Nãsepotiti. Over the past two decades, they have experienced significant demographic growth and today number over 500. They have also opened four additionalvillages — Kresan, Sankuê, Sôkarasã and Kôtikô — to better distribute natural resources, animals and fish, so that there is plenty for all.
Suakiê Panará saw this story unfold from the beginning. She speaks with enthusiasm about the life her people lead today. “Today there is plenty of food in Iriri. We have grown and our population has greatly increased. That is why we decided to split up the Nãsepotiti village [today there are five villages]”. She remembers when the exiled arrived at the Xingu Indigenous Park. “We had no young ones, there were no children. But when we returned to this place we had lots of babies.” Suakiê also tells of the revival of traditional customs that is underway. “We are teaching young people about the foods of small plot farming, how to plant and bring back traditional recipes. The girls must learn to prepare food with what comes from the small agricultural plots. To make a beiju you have to know how to cook with hot rocks, you have to learn. (…) We are teaching our children and the girls so they can learn and then the children will grow.”
Farming, cooking and handicrafts
The Panará are excellent hunters and gatherers. Starting in 2015, the Iakiô Panará Association kicked off the Puu Popoti Project, focused on reviving traditional farming methods and eating habits, with the guidance of elders. They want to recover habits they had lost over time from contact with the outside world. The workshops are organized with the support of ISA, and involve the five villages. They talk about topics such as planting and harvesting, the necessary precautions and compare their food to that of white people from the city. Suakiê Panará highlights the importance of this project, which is slated to end in 2017. One hundred families participate in the initiative, and the teachers of the Matukré Indigenous School have pledged to continue studying the fundamental aspects of small plot farming with their pupils. Suakiê is not alone. Historical leaders like Kreton and Sokriti defend the revival of food from small plot farming as essential for the survival of their people.
Workshops on handicrafts were also held to produce agricultural implements, like straw baskets made from various fibers (maripa palm, wood from the chinamato palm, leaves from the tucum palm) and the pau de cavouco used in cassava planting. Done by men, this work has been strongly impacted by the consumption of products from the city — hence the importance of these initiatives to revive traditional knowledge. In addition to passing this knowledge down to younger generations, these initiatives strengthen the agricultural system, increasing the interest of young people in their own culture and the importance of older people — while also celebrating the involvement of communities.
Management of forest resources
They began developing forest resource management projects. A good example of this is the collection of mahogany seeds, which began in 2002, with the use of rope climbing techniques. Investing in this idea as a sustainable economic alternative, the Panará have collected 700 mahogany fruits since then, and identified, numbered, measured and located 59 trees of the species on maps. In 2007, they became members of the Xingu Seed Network, diversified the collection of species and won an honorable mention for their work during the annual meeting in 2016.
The beginning of the story
The surprising history of these indigenous people, who survived and showed their incredible resilience to obstacles and difficulties, begins in 1967. This is when explorer Claudio Villas Bôas and his brother Orlando began organizing an expedition to establish contact. The construction of BR-163, a highway that would connect Cuiabá (Mato Grosso) to Santarém (Pará), would cut right through the middle of their lands. At the time, the military dictatorship pushed forward development projects whatever the cost. It is estimated that the Panará population was around 400 individuals, spread over nine villages — eight in the Peixoto de Azevedo Basin and one on the Upper Iriri River.
Contact, deaths and exile in the Xingu Indigenous Park
After some years of searching in the forest, involving long hikes, crossing rivers and many obstacles, including arrows shot at the Brazilian Air Force planes that flew over the region and provided support for the expedition, in February 1973 an exploration party finally established contact. Very much celebrated by the explorers and indigenous peoples of Xingu Park who took part in the group, the feat was followed closely by photographers Pedro Martinelli, from O Globo newspaper, and Luigi Mamprin, from Realidade magazine, who covered the expedition. By this time, however, the extermination of the Panará had already begun. Construction of the BR-163 was underway and the indigenous began to die of influenza and diarrhea, due to sporadic contact with white people.
After official contact, problems with disease were compounded by alcoholism and prostitution. Photos of the Panará begging by the side of the highway were published throughout the world. Faced with this tragic extermination, the Villas Bôas brothers decided to move them to the Xingu Indigenous Park (PIX is the Portuguese accronym), where they would be safe. By this time, the Panará population had been reduced to a little over 70 individuals. This marked the beginning of their forced exile. The Panará recount that they were not warned about their removal, and experienced difficult years because they couldn’t adapt to the places where they built their villages. They moved seven times within the PIX and continued to harbor the dream of returning to their native lands. They also carried with them the memories of disease, when hundreds died. Their leader, Akã Panará, remembers that those who didn’t die were so weak that they were unable to bury their dead.
André Villas-Bôas, executive secretary of ISA, recounts his first contact with the Panará, in 1990, The meeting took place in the Tuba Tuba village, home to the Yudjá people, in the PIX, while he was working for the Ecumenical Center for Documentation and Information (Cedi) — one of the organizations that gave rise to ISA. “It was a rainy night when a boat arrived with Kreton Panará saying that they were already on their fifth move from one village to another inside the PIX. He said that they wanted to return to the Peixoto de Azevedo region and see what was left, since ‘white man had eaten their lands.’” With the help of six Panará, support from the BBC and from the Rainforest Foundation, André and the American anthropologist Steve Schwartzmann organized an expedition to the region. During the flyover, the Panará recognized the places and expressed their sadness and disappointment. The land was devastated; the landscape was destroyed by mines and pastures. They continued to fly north, and in Peixoto de Azevedo they saw a large area of dense, intact, unoccupied forest. There was hope after all. That´s when the Panará’s battle to retake this part of their territory began. They set out, determined to do so. They later discovered that the land they had seen belonged to the federal government — and this was key to their victory.
Reoccupation and return
Then came the process of occupying the area. It took them three years of work to build a village, tilling the plots and getting everything ready for the move. ISA, which had recently been created, and Funai (National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples) supported the Panará’s unwavering decision by providing fuel for these journeys. The first group arrived in the new village in 1995, while it was still under construction. At the same time, they followed the procedures for delimiting that land. This finally occurred in January 1996, when Funai granted permanent tenure of the area to the indigenous people — approximately 495,000 hectares. In 2001, the area was officialy registered with 494,017 hectares, and in 2008 the borders with the municipalities of Matupá and Guarantã do Norte were adjusted, resulting in a total area of 499,740.50 hectares.
The return created a lot of controversy and concern about the survival of the Panará. After all, the situation was contentious and the region was full of land grabbers. They had to be very careful. The Panará would leave the PIX where they had health care and protection (which is rare for indigenous peoples in Brazil) and embark on a completely new life, subject to the predatory acts of land grabbers, miners and loggers. The book Panará, a volta dos índios Gigante [Panará, the return of the Giants] tells this story.
A victory in the courts against the federal government
In 1994, the Center for Indigenous Rights brought a lawsuit against the Federal Government claiming for the return of their land, plus losses and damages. The lawsuit was taken forward by ISA, and in 2000 the indigenous people won the case. In an unprecedented decision, the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region ruled in favor of the Panará, unanimously condemning the federal government to pay damages of 4,000 minimum wages (a little over BRL 1 million at the time) for the tragic contact. This is the first and only ruling from the Brazilian judiciary to recognize the liability of the state in its policies toward indigenous peoples. “The decision was historic.
On the one hand, it made it possible for populations that felt violated by the state to defend their rights; on the other, it drew attention to public policies that disrespect the rights of indigenous populations,” explained Carlos Frederico Marés, the attorney that represented the Panará in this landmark case. In July 2003, the Panará also received BRL 1,261,153.12 in damages from the Brazilian government, and created a Support Fund to manage the money. The Iakiô Association was founded in 2001 to represent and strengthen their culture, manage natural resources and protect their land from frequent invasions by loggers, miners and land grabbers.
Festivals and music
The Sâkiâri Project is organized by the Iakiô Association, with support from the Ministry of Culture. In 2004 it allowed the Panará to make audio recordings of the songs they sing in their festivals. In 2006, singer Marlui Miranda participated in the recordings and began to teach the Panará how to record the songs themselves. The project ended in 2008 and is registered in the Sâkiâri CD. The Matukré Indigenous School has a rich collection that is passed on to young students.
In October 2017, the Panará will celebrate with dancing and singing throughout the night, and preparation for the party is underway. Anthropologist Steve Schwartzmann highlights the importance of this case: “The history of the Panará is the history of the indigenous people of the Amazon over the last 60 years,” he underscores.
