One of Guilherme Boulos and Sonia Guajajara followers greets the candidate after a campaign rally in Macap\u00e1, Amap\u00e1, Brazil. Image: Pablo Albarenga \/ M\u00eddia NINJA. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n
Although promotional tours and concerts are
\nexhausting for musicians, they are a fundamental element of show-business and
\nthey must be undertaken with enthusiasm and professionalism. The same goes for
\nelectoral campaigns, and for any presidential or vice-presidential candidate
\nthat follows this path, it is usually a case of the more campaign visits the
\nbetter, the more selfies the better, the more exhausting the better. <\/p>\n
But amidst this promotional tour, there can
\nemerge a moment of quiet where one can find peace, a space of recovery, of
\nserenity, and in which one can connect with their inner-most emotions. And this
\nis what occurred last September the 6th for the first ever indigenous
\ncandidate for the vice-presidency in Brazil, S\u00f4nia Bone Guajajara, during a
\nstopover in the city of Santar\u00e9m, en route to S\u00e3o Paulo via Bel\u00e9n, at the mouth
\nof the Amazon.<\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
Making the most of her stop over, S\u00f4nia got
\nin touch with female indigenous leaders active in the neighbouring river
\nTapaj\u00f3s, one of the largest aquifers in the world and a place of significance
\nwithin the Amazon region, most of whom are active under the group name \u201cSuraras
\ndo Tapaj\u00f3s\u201d (warriors of the Tapaj\u00f3s). She also contacted Raquel Rosenberg,
\nleader of the Engajamundo youth movement that has been directing a project
\n\u201cEngage in the Amazon\u201d since August that works with engaging young people from
\nindigenous communities from the river Tapaj\u00f3s with the hope of mobilising them.<\/p>\n
The threats to the survival of the river
\nare huge: agro-business, the illegal logging industry, the construction of
\nports and dams, and even property pressure from a growing tourism industry.
\nThere are more than sufficient reasons to be alert and to support indigenous
\ncommunities in the defence of their rights and in the fight for a development
\nthat is both healthy and sustainable. Groups such as Sa\u00fade e Alegria, an
\nemblematic project with their base in Santar\u00e9m, see this as their principal
\nobjective.<\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
The proposal that arose from the
\nconversation between S\u00f4nia and the other female leaders was that of convoking a
\nmeeting with the Suraras but whilst submerged in the river, a hydro-meeting as
\nthey referred to it. Submerging themselves in the river and share discussions
\nwith other indigenous female leaders turned out to be a great idea, something
\nunprecedented, that fostered an intense and powerful conversation.<\/p>\n
The meeting began at the last light of the
\nday, and lasted until the celestial vault became filled with stars. The
\nindigenous leader and candidate, together with Guilherme Boulos, the leader of
\nthe Homeless Workers Movement and presidential candidate for the PSOL\u00a0(Socialism and Liberty Party) for the
\nup and coming October elections, wanted to surround herself with a dozen women
\nwho, like herself, have undertaken a deeply asymmetric fight against the mighty
\nforces of extractivism.<\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
However, the waters of the river, sacred
\nfor indigenous communities, exercised their revitalising powers and the
\nconversation flowed with intimacy until twilight. S\u00f4nia, or Sonihna as her
\nfellow warriors like to call her, told of the enormous challenge being the only
\nindigenous candidate in the presidential race and of the difficulties at the
\ncore of her mission to defend indigenous communities in a political sphere that
\nhas traditionally made them invisible.<\/p>\n
Submerged in the calm of the river and
\ninspired by ancestral energy, S\u00f4nia spoke of how the collective fight favours
\nthe community, of how they must not only stand up in defence of indigenous
\ncommunities in Brazil but they must also fight for a stable ecosystem, for the
\nconservation of the river, and of the rainforest. As all indigenous people know
\ntoo well she said, resisting is existing.<\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
Forming a circle of bodies floating in the
\nwater as the last light of the day rested on the horizon, the women spoke of
\nthis special moment they are experiencing and how, despite the difficulties
\nthey face in a country with tremendous machismo, they are the protagonists of
\nthis story, they are the ones capable of fighting, of resisting, of telling new
\nnarratives. <\/p>\n
In this revitalising exercise, in contact
\nwith a river that affirms the power of the ancestral spirit, the certainty of
\nbeing, every individual in the meeting turned their heads towards a shooting
\nstar, whose golden trail glowed off retinas for an instant that almost appeared
\neternal.<\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
It was a cosmic moment, that preceded a
\nbrief but solemn purification ceremony in luke-warm waters, perfumed with herbs
\nprepared according to ancestral ritual practice. A moment of silence was
\nshared, whilst conscious of the transcendence of the moment in which the water
\nspilled from a ritual bowl onto the heads of those present, one after the
\nother, accompanied by words of purification, different words for each blessing.<\/p>\n
The ceremony drew to a close, while
\ncomplicity, anecdotes, and jokes returned to the circle, as if someone longed
\nto break the ice after witnessing such a moment. The hydro-meeting was
\ndisbanded harmoniously, with each individual taking their time to return to the
\nshore, to the normality of every day life, to the road-show of the electoral
\ncampaign. <\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
Indigenous communities know the meanings of
\noppression, of violence and they know the collective fight can contribute to
\nthe growth of true democracy in Brazil that is currently threatened by brutal
\ndigressions towards an authoritarian regime. Fortunately, many women have
\nraised their voices against the arbitrary nature of a cruel economic model that
\noppresses, that excludes and that kills. And they are fighting. <\/p>\n
S\u00f4nia Guajajara repeats in her campaign
\nwhen she has the chance, that there have been 518 years of oppression, but now
\nit will be the women, indigenous, black, warriors, any woman with the audacity
\nand courage, that will have the capacity to defend a democracy that is so
\nthreatened today in Brazil. They know of the importance of winning, so that a
\nnew story can be told.<\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of Guilherme Boulos and Sonia Guajajara followers greets the candidate after a campaign rally in Macap\u00e1, Amap\u00e1, Brazil. Image: Pablo Albarenga \/ M\u00eddia NINJA. All rights reserved. Although promotional tours and concerts are exhausting for musicians, they are a fundamental element of show-business and they must be undertaken with enthusiasm and professionalism. The same…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}