Brazilian Indians visit UK to fight for Amazon home
An aid worker from the North East travelled to London this week to show her solidarity for two Brazilian Indians as they made a desperate plea to MPs to help save their Amazon forest home.
Anne-Marie Hanlon, from Jarrow, first met Jacir José de Souza and Pierlângela Nascimento da Cunha, who are from the Makuxi and Wapixana tribes, when she visited Brazil with aid agency CAFOD in November 2006.
Anne-Marie talking to Jacir from Brazil outside the Houses of Parliament
Anne-Marie, who is CAFOD’s diocesan manager for Hexham & Newcastle, saw the suffering of the indigenous people first-hand.
She said: “CAFOD has been supporting indigenous groups in the Roraima region for many years to defend their lands, their culture and their livelihood. Now things have reached crisis point. We are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with CIR to show the British Government that people living in England and Wales do care about what is happening on the other side of the globe and they should too.”
Jacir and Pierlângela will meet Liberal Democrat MP Martin Horwood and officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office tomorrow. They also have met Pope Benedict XVI as they tour Europe in a bid to save their ancestral lands, which are under threat from large-scale farmers.
Jacir speaks to Pope Benedict in Rome
For decades the Makuxi and Wapixana tribes, along with three other native peoples, have called on the Brazilian government to protect their territory, known as Raposa Serra do Sol, which is in the state of Roraima in the north of the country.
The Brazilian president, Luis Inácio “Lula” da Silva, granted official recognition to the Indian communities’ ownership of the territory in 2005 – but a group of powerful farmers, who occupy a significant part of it, refuse to leave the area.
The Roraima State government supports the farmers, and is petitioning the Brazilian Supreme Court to give them a large piece of the Indians’ land.
In recent months, the tribes have come under attack from farmers who have shot and wounded people, burned bridges and thrown a bomb into one of the communities.
CAFOD has supported indigenous groups in the Roraima region for many years and is helping to fund the Indians’ visit to the UK. The agency works in partnership with the local diocese and the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) which Jacir founded, to help indigenous groups secure the right to live on their traditional land.
Help to save Brazilian heritage: a petition is available on CAFOD website
Photo thanks to Joelle Hernandez/CAFOD