The Indians and us
In
spite of having become a minority in Brazil, Indians have been
creating more and more instruments within the 'white' society
in order to ensure the respect to their rights and the defense
of their interests (indigenous policies),
especially through indigenous organizations
and indigenous candidacies to public
offices. In addition to their political objectives, Indigenous
organizations have been working on the viability of alternative
projects, whose sustainability can represent a compromise between
having an income, protecting traditions and preserving nature
(partnerships and projects).
Indigenous groups have their own opinions about 'the white man'
and versions different from ours of the History of Brazil and
of humankind, some of which were told here by Indians of various
groups (indigenous narratives).
Brazilian society, on the other hand, in general knows very little
about the Indigenous peoples who live in the country and in bordering
regions; what is said about them often reveal a partial and incomplete
knowledge of their specificity (what
do we know about the indians?). However, according to a survey
made jointly made by ISA and Ibope in 2000, Brazilians increasingly
recognize the contributions of the Indians for the preservation
of nature, their importance to Brazilian culture and their right
to be different and to continue to live the way they do (what
do Brazilians think about the indians?). The survey indicates,
however, that a notion that the Indians are 'part' of nature and
thus are 'natural' ecologists still subsists. This idea does not
take into account the fact that each Indigenous group has a specific
relationship with the environment, of which it differs as much
as we (the indians and ecology).
