The role of indigenist women for gender equality

The indigenism carried out by Operation Native Amazon (OPAN) consists of acting in favor of defending the rights of indigenous peoples, carrying out interventions with the objective of supporting peoples in guaranteeing and protecting their territorial rights, health, education, culture, food sovereignty and autonomy. Over the years, the institution has strengthened the participation of women in its teams. “In the past, the actions carried out by indigenous women were not made visible, the entry of indigenist women into this world changed the scenario, changing the way of interacting and doing things”, explains Cristabell López, OPAN’s anthropologist and indigenist. 

The changes, based on the actions of women, reverberate not only in labor relations, but also in the indigenist intervention in the field and in the reading of the dynamics of the gender relations of each people. The Raízes do Purus project, carried out by OPAN and sponsored by Petrobras and the federal government, has strengthened the presence and role of indigenous women, especially in the action directed at indigenous women and their specificities. The initiative has been working with indigenous peoples from the South and Southwest of Amazonas since 2013, supporting the management and territorial protection of six indigenous lands.

“From this place of welcoming, indigenist women contribute to creating internal political strategies and, through the project, to promote this so that indigenous women can, if they want, to carry out issues of their interests”, reflects Tainara Proença, ecologist and indigenist OPAN. Cristabell and Tainara work at Raízes do Purus and have been contributing to the construction of a gender equity approach within the project.

The Raízes do Purus project spoke with the two indigenists to learn about their trajectories and the process of reflection on the action directed at indigenous women. Check it out below.

Tell us a little about what an indigenist woman’s work is like, especially this work you do with women?

It is a challenge not only as a woman, but for anyone who is not from the north. So leaving the Southeast and coming to live in a region that I’m not used to is an impact. There is a lot of machismo, especially in the aspects of access, of speech space, of legitimacy. But when I got here, I had already prepared myself and I was also able to count on the entire team to welcome me in this movement, because I can’t do it alone. The social elements are very dense, complex and at the same time beautiful, and are the lives of people who have to be taken very collectively, understanding that it is a very slow process. The work that is done here is a work that I respect a lot. This work is not just a project, OPAN follows the life of a people in its depths, in its joys, in its conflicts, supporting its struggles and this demands a giant personal dedication. 

Tell me a little bit about the beginning of this work with the Paumari women?

a base was built in these 15 years[de atuação da OPAN e do projeto Raízes do Purus junto ao povo Paumari]That were essential for today to be able to create a movement that, little by little, opens up more space for women. At the beginning they[as mulheres indígenas do povo Paumari]did not participate in the management, for example. Then they started from the kitchen, then in surveillance, cleaning the fish and also in monitoring, so they are occupying important spaces within the management, but they are not spaces for their protagonism. There they do not decide politically and strategically, but based on the technical qualifications they acquire and the space that the people open. Even in the very creation of the Indigenous Association of the People of the Waters (AIPA) from the beginning, they raised the importance of having women in office. And then a scenario was built in which women were achieving more legitimacy in their speeches, greater protagonism and, above all, power to make political articulation. People, as an indigenist, carry out some interventions that allow them to occupy other spaces. It is this place that they place me and that I see myself, to create gaps within their relationships so that they can occupy other spaces of protagonism. The female presence in the OPAN team brings this perception that they can occupy spaces and men also accept. My job is to look at the subtleties, welcome these emotions and help them position themselves there before the people. In the next edition of the Raízes do Purus project we are building an agenda specifically aimed at women. 

It’s beautiful to realize how subtle the indigenist work is. 

It is a careful listening and the perception of emotions, of relationships. This listening, which is not always verbalized, but perceived in a gesture, is also the place of welcoming. I feel that the indigenist woman needs to welcome. In all the people I’m together, working, when we enter with women, it’s in the welcoming place. The movement of opening the heart after the bond is very fast, of the weaknesses, of the dreams. From this hosting place, help them to create internal political strategies and through the project, promote this so that they start, if they want, to lead a few issues.

What do you see that you have in common among indigenous women, especially those of the Paumari people, and non-indigenous women?

I think the ability to look at your emotions, your crying, your joys, your sorrows, to look and welcome. The concern they have with their children is something very beautiful and in the non-indigenous universe it is also like that. the ability to care as a whole. I think this is what unites, the desire to take care of, that everyone is happy, the desire to offer food to everyone. They have a huge concern about giving this abundance to everyone. 

What is it like to be an indigenist woman?

It’s an availability for everything, you have to be available. Available to routine changes, to be living what you have to live. Physically you have to be available and emotionally too, it’s the exercise of taking deep breaths, breathing ten times more because of machismo.

You have already acted in other indigenist organizations in Colombia and I imagine you have notes regarding the differences in the ways of working. What is your reading of the work done by OPAN?

What makes a difference in OPAN’s work is this didactic way of being able to contribute to the processes in a very simple way of understanding, very simple to speak, and in a very loving way, a lot of friendship. I see that they are bonds of very closeness. I see that you seek to say things in the simplest possible way, so that everyone can understand and everyone can move forward. And I think this is very important, because we are also talking about people with recent contact and who have different types of communication. I see that OPAN has approached with the concern that things are done in the best way for them and according to their interests, we will not do anything other than what they want to develop, advance, in their purposes. So we come to that, to support their initiatives and desires. 

How is the day to day of work you do with the women Deni and Kanamari? 

The most important thing is this construction of bonds of trust, they can have a closeness and say what is happening, what they want, this opening of them to the institution is given and this is very important, because if there is no relationship of trust, we cannot advance in the processes. My colleague who was before, Tarsila, was the one who opened the doors for me, who introduced me to women. From the beginning I had a very big welcome from them. In the villages I go to and in the activities that we have, I share as much time with them as possible, to strengthen these bonds, because that’s what provides them with the possibility of them being able to tell you “look, we want to do this”, in short, to be able to give this support.

What do you realize that non-indigenous women and indigenous women have in common?

Over the centuries we have not had the same opportunities as men, speeches, participatory spaces and I think that exists in both worlds. and they[as mulheres indígenas]They also have not had these open spaces and I speak because you listen to the women of the indigenous movements, both in Brazil and in Colombia and in Latin America, to talk about it, of this opening of spaces, where they can be heard and occupy these spaces that men occupy and that they still did not manage to do, some yes, Others don’t. In this sense, it is the same struggle, this struggle to reach the spaces that were prohibited for us. It is to create awareness both in the indigenous world and in the non-indigenous world, of the importance of women, who have played a fundamental role throughout history, in both worlds. We not only create life, we contribute to the territory, with education, with the entire formative process like humanity. 

Do you have a remarkable moment in your performance as an indigenist, something that impacted you and that marked your work that you can share?

the trip with the Indigenous women for Brasilia[para a III Marcha das Mulheres Indígenas] It was remarkable. First, they were women who had never left their territories. Share with them the days, to get to know a big city, the space, absorbing all the knowledge they could, listening in a very attentive way to the speeches of other indigenous women, listening to these political speeches that they did not also know and of gender violence, so many other things that are themes that had not been spoken for them, who do not speak within the territories. So it was a whole discovery of a universe that is also indigenous, but that is in other spheres and that they had not accessed. So being able to follow this was a very rich experience for me, very beautiful and a lot of learning. 

What is it like to be an indigenist woman?

Before the presence of indigenists male predominated, so they were used to dealing with men and the entry of women into this world was changing things, their way of interacting and doing things too. And their motivation, in the case of OPAN, to want to incorporate women also came from this demand that indigenous women better relate to other women. So this was making the amount of women growing inside the institution, creating space to interact in a different way. And in the field, really an indigenist woman who is going to the area has to have very particular characteristics, who don’t mind spending long journeys, long walks. It has to be very adventurous and intrepid, which are characteristics normally attributed to men, but that women also have. Going to the area has a high demand, both in spirit, because you have to be very balanced to be in these worlds and experience learning in a way that feels good. I think an indigenist woman is much more warrior.