Amazon indigenous people leave the jungle and find urban poverty

In 1976, Binan Tuku ventured out to meet an expedition from the brazilian government on the banks of the Itui River in a remote area of ​​the western Amazon jungle. After some initial suspicions, he and his father accepted machetes and soap in what was the beginning of the Matis tribe’s contact with the non-world. indigenous.

Almost 50 years later, Tuku’s son, Tumi, tries to make a living in the impoverished city of Atalaia do Norte. Instead of the traditional blowpipe, Tumi held a pastry bag in his hands working in a bakery, and his face did not bear the signature Matis tattoos or piercings.

“In the town, the quality of education is not as good as in the city”said Tumi, 24, who hopes to go to university to study medicine or journalism. “I want to engage with non-indigenous people, learn from the challenges I face, and maybe one day return to my village to share my understanding of how the city works with the elderly.”

Thousands of indigenous people like Tumi are migrating to cities like Atalaia do Norte, some in search of a better education and others attracted by a social welfare state that can trap them in urban poverty. Their exodus is leaving villages withered and raising concerns that the world’s largest rainforest, crucial to stemming the worst of climate change, will be left without its most effective guardians.

About half of the Javari Valley’s 6,200 indigenous people now live in urban centers, according to estimates by anthropologist Almério Alves Wadick. The Matis, one of several indigenous peoples in the region, say that almost half of its 600 inhabitants now live in that city.

That number is likely to grow, said Binin Matis, who heads the Matis Indigenous Association and fears the loss of his people’s language and their exposure to drugs.

“In the town there are few people; They are the oldest leaders. Young people are in the citysaid. “No young Matis knows how to make a blowpipe, an arrow. When students go to the village for vacation, they don’t want to learn from the elders. They want to play soccer, have fun, and do white man things.”

Bushe Matis, president of Univaja, the main association of indigenous peoples in the Javari Valley, fears that the migration will lead to cuts in health and education programs and the possible revocation of indigenous territories that could later be opened up for mining and drilling.

The Amazon came under severe pressure under the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who was in favor of its exploitation. During his only term, illegal mining increased and deforestation reached a 15-year high.

Univaja recently established its own surveillance team to guard against illegal fishermen, miners and loggers, a duty previously performed by villages. The initiative is crucial to protect uncontacted Indians who could be endangered by something as simple as the flu carried by invaders, Bushe said.

Such tension appears to be behind last year’s murders of indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips. Pereira was in the Javari Valley helping to create the Univaja surveillance system. Four fishermen and a businessman were arrested for the murders.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sought to ease pressure on the Amazon since he defeated Bolsonaro in last year’s election. He established a Ministry of Indigenous Affairs in part to safeguard indigenous communities. A crucial part of that is improving education, a major challenge in remote areas of the Amazon.

Indigenous families also face hostility from non-indigenous residents who view them as competition for limited resources, especially fish.

“The Indians come here, the government doesn’t give them food and they fish on our side”said fisherman Antonio Alves, 46. “When one of us mistreats someone, it is to survive.”

Indigenous migration is being driven in part by a federal program created 20 years ago in Lula’s first term. The Bolsa Família program was launched to provide families with cash if they get their children vaccinated and keep them in school. Tens of thousands of indigenous families began to frequent the cities to collect benefits from state banks, but there were disastrous consequences.

Indians unaccustomed to handling money sometimes overpaid for long boat trips or their debit cards were illegally held by unscrupulous merchants as collateral for credit or installment purchases. In the city, they remained in precarious conditions, vulnerable to alcohol and disease. Often, the Bolsa Família payment was not enough for them to return home.

“They conclude that it is better to stay in the city, receive that amount and allocate it to study, since there is not even a complete primary education in the town”said Wadick, the anthropologist. Indigenous leaders say village schools are in shambles from poor maintenance and lack of government oversight. Many indigenous teachers have spent long periods in the city, neglecting their work.

But the money is not enough to cover life in the city either. The minimum payment is the equivalent of $125 per month, plus small additions for pregnant women and children based on age. Indigenous people often compete with each other for low-paying jobs like picking up garbage or sweeping streets. Many go hungry.

“We need clothes, to eat every day, to pay the electricity and water bills. If all that was free, we could sustain ourselves with 125″said Tumi, who recently left the bakery to work at Univaja.

The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples is trying to rework parts of the program so that indigenous people do not have to travel as frequently to collect payment. The proposals include extending the period to withdraw the money and flexible payment dates.

Another important goal of the ministry is to improve education in indigenous territories to reduce incentives to leave. That is a daunting task with high costs for huge, remote and impoverished areas.

Nelly Marubo, an indigenous anthropologist, said her ideal is culturally adapted village schools where students have access to indigenous and non-indigenous knowledge without needing to be in the city. But she was surprised by what she found when, after an absence of five years, she recently visited her home region deep in the Javari Valley to film a documentary about her life.

“I always have many children and young people in mind, but unfortunately this time the visit was very sad,” he said. “I found an abandoned village with only four old women.”

Source: AP