INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF RN
During the colonial period around 1960, the massacre occurred during the Confederação dos Cariris, also known as the war of the barbarians, was a movement of resistance of Brazilian Indians of the Cariri and Tarairiú nations to the Portuguese domination that occurred in the states of RN, PB and CE. Although the conflict was responsible for several exterminations and displacements of some groups for slave labor in the cane fields or village missions. The period of the Pombaline Directory (1755) and the Land Law (1850) meant that indigenous territories were taken over by the advance of cattle ranches and the structuring of villages. The speeches of ethnic disappearance by local intellectuals have always maintained this invisibility. In addition, there were migrations to other areas that mixed with other local settlements, often denying their identity to avoid persecution and fleeing the colonizing policy of the time. Persecution, prejudice and social inferiority from the point of view of modern, industrial and European society for many have made cultures invisible.
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The articulations of the indigenous peoples of RN had an important beginning with an audience in 2005 involving three communities: Catu dos Eleóterios, Mendonça do Amarelão and Caboclos de Assu. Among other meetings, the recognition of the existence of Indians gained strength on the part of its leaders. UFRN, the Câmara Cascudo Museum, the José Augusto Foundation and FUNAI in João Pessoa / PB had an important collaboration in the dialogue with public institutions. As the meetings for the manifestation of peoples' demands took place, other groups joined the articulations: Potiguara Sagi / Trabanda, Tapuia Paiacu, Tapuia Tarairiú and Potiguara do Serrote de São Bento.
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There are currently 12 indigenous communities in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, comprising four ethnic groups:
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CABOCLES:
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The Caboclos indigenous community, located in Assú, was one of the first to claim their ethnic rights together with the Mendonça do Amarelão and the Potiguara do Catu in a public hearing at the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Norte, in 2005. Formed by 40 families and 96 people, the Caboclos inhabit a dry territory in the potiguar hinterland living on the banks of the Paraú River, being sharecroppers in the lands where they live and which belong to farmers in the region. The memory of Tapuia ancestors is recurrent in indigenous communities, including the Caboclos, in Assu, however they prefer the term caboclo to demarcate their ethnic border.
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POTIGUARA
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Potiguara do Catu
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The Catu indigenous community, of the Potiguara ethnicity, is located in two municipalities, Canguaretama and Goianinha and, according to Cacique Luiz Catu's report on the origin of the village, came from the old village of Igramació, in the 18th century, going up between Sibaúma and Barra do Cunhaú, where the river flows, until the springs, in the middle of closed forest.
There are currently 142 families, 726 self-declared indigenous people and, for the most part, agriculture is the predominant economic activity. Growing beans, corn, manioc and especially sweet potatoes, the Potiguara do Catu people use the fertile soil of the valley to produce food for consumption and to sell at fairs and other businesses in the region. The hunting and fishing that once had a central place, became second place due to the intense deforestation caused by sugar cane fields that dispute the indigenous lands since the beginning of colonization. The collection of fruits such as mangaba is also being affected by socio-environmental conflicts caused by enterprises such as plants and monoculture.
As well as the Festival of the Chestnut of Amarelão and the Festival of the Corn of Sagi-Trabanda, the Potiguara of the Catu hold annually, on the day of all saints, the first of November, the Festival of the Potato. An event that demonstrates the articulation and indigenous strength to relate to institutions, groups and diverse situations, such as the need to transform the habits of hunter-gatherers for farmers due to the environmental destruction perpetrated by the sugarcane monoculture that dates back to the beginnings of interethnic relations between Europeans and Indians. This statement can be seen at the 2018 Potato Party, when Chief Luiz and local Canine tourist guide stated that with each passing day the difficulty is growing to collect mangaba other native fruits, due to agribusiness and local deforestation.
Past and contemporary habits are addressed in the indigenous school education of the Potiguara do Catu, which has the only indigenous school officially recognized in RN by MEC (Ministry of Education). This recognition lasted an eight-year process, according to the chief's report. The Tupinambá or Old Tupi language is studied with children at the João Lino Silva Municipal Indigenous School as a sociolinguistic effort to strengthen the Potiguara do Catu identity. Catu means good, pleasant, canguaretama means 'the region of bones, cemetery' and, according to Cacique Luiz, this name refers to indigenous struggle and resistance. The group's cosmogony appears in the studies and practice of Toré with the students of the indigenous school. Oral history is also a fundamental content of the differentiated education applied in Catu. The full moon ritual is practiced monthly, where they gather in the woods or at the home of some indigenous Catu to exchange experiences, dance and sing in Toré. In addition, the body paintings of the Catu indigenous community also represent the group's ethnic reaffirmation. The plants commonly used in the preparation of paints are jenipapu and annatto. The darker colors are used in moments of battle or protest, while the light and soft colors symbolize joy. The main animals symbolized in the paintings are fish, tortoise and snake.
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Potiguara of Sagi / Trabanda
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The Potiguara people of Sagi / Trabanda are located in the extreme south of the north coast of Rio Grande do Sul, in the municipality of Baía Formosa, with 159 families, and, on average, 443 indigenous people who subsist on artisanal fishing, fruit collection and bean farming, potato, cassava and corn and tourist activities. Every year, the community holds the Corn Festival, in June, the age of the ancient collection of this cereal grown in the Americas. This event has the participation of students from the region, indigenous people from other villages in Rio Grande do Norte and their relatives Potiguara da Paraíba, of whom they are divided only by the geopolitical frontier between the two states. The Potiguara do Sagi / Trabanda maintain kinship relations with the Potiguara of Paraíba, notably the residents of the villages located in the municipalities of Baía da Traição, Marcação and Rio Tinto, from where several families migrated at the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century .
The resistance of this indigenous group, as of so many communities in the Northeast of Brazil, is not only connected with the search for the recognition of their differentiated identity, but with their own survival and the realization of ethnic rights, since they are threatened by several business fronts . Since 2007, the Potiguara of the Bahia-Formosan coast have struggled to remain in their traditionally occupied territory, which is disputed by companies that see great potential in the region for the development of tourist activity and by sugar and alcohol plants.
The Potiguara do Sagi / Trabanda live surrounded by reeds that, in addition to contaminating the soil and water with pesticides, deforest, set fire and cause socio-environmental conflicts, harming the community's well-being, as well as the destruction of their plantations and threats to the population's life.
The territorial demarcation process of the communities of Rio Grande do Norte was initiated in 2015, in Sagi / Trabanda, with the consent of the indigenous movement, due to the constant threats that these Potiguara people have been suffering over time.
“Potiguara is a warrior, Potiguara is going to fight! A warrior on land, she fights on the sea, Potiguara is going to fight ”. Fragment of a song, point of the Toré Potiguara sung in Aldeia Sagi. And it is in strength, in struggle and in the ability to resist and recreate their strategies of living in community that Aldeia Sagi-Trabanda presents itself from the sea to the contemporary political world “Rei Caracará and Rei Jandui, Aldeia Trabanda is here, Aldeia Trabanda is here!
In addition, over the past decade, tourist activity has been driven by the members of the community due to the intense visitation, favoring, above all, the sale of food and handicrafts.
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Mendonça do Amarelão Novo
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The indigenous families called Mandu, migrated from Amarelão in the 1980s after seismic shocks in the city of João Câmara, settling in a subdivision in the Lagoa Azul neighborhood known as Cidade Praia, in the north of the state capital. Amarelão Novo was the name given in reference to the place of origin, the community of Amarelão.
With the move from the countryside to the city, many changes have occurred for this group, especially with regard to the economic issue. The cashew nut processing activity, which is very recurrent among the Mendonça, has been replaced by various services such as civil construction and domestic services in general. Despite the geographical distance, the families maintain a strong kinship relationship and sociability practices that connect them to the Mendonça do Amarelão.
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Mendonça do Amarelão
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Amarelão is the name of the “refuge place” of Mendonça, as presented by Jusssara Galhardo in his master's dissertation entitled “Mendonça do Amarelão: the paths and paths of indigenous identity in Rio Grande do Norte (2007). Located in the municipality of João Câmara, 93.3 km from the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, it was in this location in the region of Mato Grande, that the indigenous community started to occupy, produce and resist, bringing together families of “Tupis who fled from villages that became villages” according to Câmara Cascudo in his book História de um homem (1954) and tapuias brabos (Galhardo, 2017), reacting to the actions of the empire in the 19th century and the republic.
The name Amarelão refers, among many versions, to the ancient ritual of worshiping the sun, also called "amarelão". The Mendonça went out in the “dawn”, still dark, singing and playing maracas to seek the first rays of sun.
The use of the term Mendonça refers to a form of self-denomination of families currently residing in Amarelão and other adjacent communities, in reference to a common ancestor, Francisco Mendonça who, according to historiography and oral tradition, arrives in the region in the middle of the century XIX coming from Paraíba. In Amarelão there are 287 families, 888 of whom live. In demographic terms, it is the largest indigenous community in RN. The Mendonça do Amarelão worked, above all, on the farms located in the municipality of João Câmara. The work consisted of harvesting cotton and agave. Currently, they are dedicated to agriculture and mainly in the processing of cashew nuts.
Amarelão's families are organized in the Amarelão Community Association (ACA). At the Association's headquarters, various cultural, political and ethno-tourism activities are promoted. One of the most important activities is the Chestnut Festival, which is held annually. The objective of the party is to enhance the work of processing the chestnut, from the commercialization of the product itself and its derivatives, as well as to mobilize the internal and external public in order to give greater visibility to the local indigenous identity.
The territory of the Mendonça do Amarelão is in the process of land tenure regularization with the formation of a Technical Group for the identification and demarcation of the Indigenous Land.
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Mendonça do Serrote de São Bento
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Serrote de São Bento is a Mendonça community located between Amarelão and BR 406. The community consists of one hundred and ten families, three hundred people. The Serrote families, as well as the Amarelão families, use the surname Mendonça in reference to their common ancestor, Francisco Mendonça. They also develop economic activities aimed at the processing of nuts.
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Mendonça do Santa Terezinha Settlement
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The Santa Terezinha Settlement is an area of the so-called Mendonça territory located on the former Fazenda Saramandaia that belonged to Major Burity. In 1994, the Mendonça families articulated with the Landless Movement (MST) and agents of the Catholic Church, achieving the demarcation of this area through the agrarian reform policy, thus constituting the referred Settlement.
Currently, 199 indigenous families and 740 people live in the Settlement. The Mendonça families are currently demanding the transformation of the settlement into an Indigenous Land, since it is a land traditionally occupied by indigenous families.
In the Settlement the Saramandaia Municipal School was named after the old ranch. In Saramandaia School, in addition to elementary education level I, from the first to the fifth grade, an effort is made to carry out an indigenous school education, addressing oral history, aspects of Mendonça culture, Toré practices with singing and dancing as well as games and games. traditional.
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Mendonça do Açucena
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The potiguara people Mendonça de Açucena have sixty-seven people and seventy-fourteen families, five indigenous. It is the smallest Mendonça group in the region. It is said in the oral history that the group migrated from Serrote de São Bento due to the difficulties of farming the land and access to housing. Fifteen wind turbines from the Eurus II wind farm have been installed in its territory, in a territory of 128 hectares, since 2013.
The processing of cashew nuts and agriculture are the main economic activities of the Mendonça de Açucena. There are no schools in Açucena due to the small number of students, which forces children to study “on the street”, in the schools of João Câmara, or in the Municipal School Francisco Zabulon of the Serrote de São Bento indigenous community 5 km away.
The Proactive Association of the Açucena Community is an ethnic organization of the Mendonça people and from there it is claimed: territorial demarcation, basic health care, school transport for students, the public insurance program, Social Security so that families access maternity wages, sickness benefits, retirement, among other social security policies.
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Mendonça de Marajó
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Marajó is a settlement created in 1991 via INCRA, in João Câmara. It started with about 300 families. Nowadays it is composed of 33 families, totaling 115 indigenous people from the Mendonça Potiguara group. Through the Association of Producers and Rural Producers of Marajó these Potiguaras Mendonça seek to strengthen their community through struggles to implement public policies and drain their production from family farming. Subsistence agriculture consists of planting beans, potatoes, corn that has been cultivated by this community for decades
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Mendonça de Cachoeira / New Discovery
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The Cachoeira indigenous community is located in the municipality of Jardim de Angicos and borders the municipalities of João Câmara, Riachuelo, Pedra Preta, Bento Fernandes and Caiçara do Rio do Vento. His relatives Mendonça do Assentamento Santa Terezinha, do Amarelão, do Serrote de São Bento are 16 km away.
Forty-seven families, in a total of 132 indigenous people that make up this Mendonça community. According to oral history, the migration process started in 1950 when they left Amarelão in search of better lands to inhabit and develop subsistence agriculture, in addition to working on the various farms in the region.
Currently the public administration of the municipality of Jardim de Angicos calls the territory New Discovery, however the indigenous people recognize it as Cachoeira.
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TAPUIA PAIACU
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The Tapuia Paiacu people of Apodi inhabit the western region of Rio Grande do Norte. It is in the center of the city that the Tapuia Paiacu indigenous people articulate, unlike other communities located in the countryside. This ethnic group consists of 120 families and 150 people. The Tapuias Paiacus de Apodi Cultural Historical Center is an institution organized by the indigenous people, mainly by Lúcia Maria Tavares, founder and main maintainer of the first indigenous Museum in Rio Grande do Norte, the Luiza Cantofa Museum. Both institutions have the objective of valuing, disseminating and strengthening the native alterities of the apodiense backlands. The historical process of violence and colonial occupation in the backlands of Rio Grande do Sul is recalled by the local leadership of the Tapuia Paiacu. The records of these processes can be identified in oral history reports, public administration writings and academic elaborations on such a colonial context. Recently, in the second half of 2018, Tapuia Paiacu resumed a place of memory between the district of Soledade and the EMPARN base in Chapada do Apodi. With this resumption, the political action of these indigenous people is evident with a view to the process of territorial demarcation.
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TAPUIA TARAIRIÚ
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The Tapuia Tarairiú community of Lagoa de Tapará is located in the metropolitan region of Natal, in the municipalities of São Gonçalo do Amarantee Macaíba. 124 families and 400 indigenous people in the municipality of Macaíba and another 27 families, totaling 98 self-declared indigenous people in São Gonçalo do Amarante. The families struggle is for territorial demarcation, differentiated health and education and, for the control of natural resources, as is the case of water that is subtracted to supply other luxury locations. The lagoon that names the community is privatized with access restricted to indigenous people. Families annually promote the cultural fair, which is always held in May. Headquartered at the Tapará Lagoon Indigenous Community Council, which has a diversified program that includes Grupo de Boi de Reis, Capoeira, Maculelê, forró bands, João Redondo / Mamulengo games and indigenous games such as the shuttlecock and corroveára ( tree run). These activities seek to strengthen and enhance their identity.
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WARAO
O povo Warao, tradicionalmente habitantes do delta do rio Orinoco (Venezuela), são um grupo étnico bastante diverso no que tange a suas formas de organização social e costumes, compartilhando uma língua comum, também chamada Warao, e totalizando, atualmente, cerca de 49 mil indivíduos. No Brasil, há registros de sua presença migratória desde pelo menos 2014, tendo esta se intensificado em anos recentes. Pela localização geográfica da Venezuela, os primeiros locais de migração para terras brasileiras se deram no Norte do país (Roraima, Amazonas, Pará). Tal fluxo logo se expandiu para outras capitais, já no Nordeste, como as do estado do Maranhão, Piauí e Ceará, e mais recentemente Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba e Pernambuco. No Rio Grande do Norte, no primeiro semestre de 2020, estima-se a presença de cerca de 40 famílias da etnia, tanto em Natal quanto em Mossoró.
Dentre os migrantes venezuelanos que têm circulado pelo Brasil nos últimos anos, em busca de melhores condições de vida, estima-se a presença de aproximadamente 4 mil indígenas. Em 2019, o Alto Comissariado das Nações Unidas para os Refugiados (ACNUR) estimava a presença no Brasil de três etnias entre esses migrantes: Warao, representando 68% do total; Pemon Taurepang, 30%, e Eñepa, 2%.
Os Warao são um grupo étnico habitante, em sua maioria, do Delta do rio Orinoco, na República Bolivariana da Venezuela. Mesmo que ocupem tradicionalmente uma vasta região que abarca o estuário do Orinoco (no estado venezuelano de Delta Amacuro), também são encontrados em estados vizinhos como os de Monagas, Sucre, e Bolívar, além de circularem pela região transfronteiriça com a Guiana. Em 2011, conforme censo do Instituto Nacional de Estadística da Venezuela, havia 48.771 Warao no país, 6,73% de sua população indígena total. Já em 2019, segundo estimativa da ACNUR, crê-se haver cerca de 49 mil Warao, aí computados os em situação de trânsito, migração e/ou refúgio (ACNUR, 2019: 17).
Pela extensão da área que tradicionalmente habitam, bem como pela multiplicidade de pessoas e grupos warao, estes não apresentam elementos culturais homogêneos, afora compartilharem a mesma língua, também chamada warao (García-Castro, Heinen, 2000). Para a linguística, este idioma é ora classificado junto à família chibcha (Mosony, 1987), ora como idioma isolado (Wilbert, 1957; Vaquero, 1965; Osborn, 1966; ver também Granados, 1991 e Romero-Figeroa, 2003).
De acordo com parecer antropológico do Ministério Público Federal (MPF, 2017a), existem indícios pré-coloniais de coexistência entre diversos sistemas interétnicos no Delta do Orinoco. Com a posterior chegada dos europeus e seu processo de missionação, esses sistemas tornaram-se ainda mais complexos, posto incluir novas relações sociais causadas pela invasão colonial. Este apresentou aos indígenas novas condições de vida, bem como a necessidade de elaborar novas estratégias de existência, resistência e convivência com o sistema de expansão do colonizador. Por isso, segundo a literatura especializada: “A heterogeneidade cultural dos Warao, advinda da multiplicidade de povos no período pré‐colonial no Delta do Rio Orinoco e suas adjacências e reunida em torno de uma unidade linguística, são características marcantes deste povo indígena” (Yamada, Torelly, 2018: 65).