For information and to help, the Guarani Survival Fund: www.guarani-survival.org

To mark the launch of Birdwatchers, Survival International has launched a special fund on behalf of the Guarani-Kaiowà, to whom the film is dedicated. Every penny raised for the Guarani Survival Fund will help them to defend their human rights, regain their ancestral lands and plant their crops once more.

“The situation of the Kaiowa today is frightening,” explains Francesca Casella, director of Survival in Italy. “Their lands have been destroyed, their leaders are being killed and their children are starving. But the communities do not want money and wealth, and don’t want government hand outs. All they ask for is enough land to survive on, and the control of their lives and their future. Without their land, the Guarani have no hope.”

In an open letter, signed by the leaders of their communities, the Kaiowa write that living off paternalistic government assistance is “like having a gun cocked against our heads, stopping us from going back and produce our own food [...] We need to have the right conditions to grow food in our own gardens once more, to cultivate manioc, potato, sugar cane, banana, sweet potato, corn, beans, rice… Our lands must be freed from invaders and must be legally recognised and ratified by the government. We need help to resuscitate our land.”

The initiative, jointly conceived by Survival, Marco Bechis and the Guarani, has been endorsed by the producers and distributors of Birdwatchers. It is supported by an appeal at the end of the film and by a dedicated website, produced by Survival in several languages.

The fundraising is directed at both the audience of Birdwatchers and at the media. “We cannot change the past,” concludes Fiona Watson, in charge of Survival’s Brazil campaigns, “but we can certainly stop history from repeating itself.”

460,000 indigenous people; 225 tribes; 40-60 uncontacted groups; 12% of Brazil designated as Indian land; 0% of land Indian-owned.

The Indian population of Brazil consists of a huge variety of peoples, spread throughout the country from the tropical rain forests to the prairies and savannahs. The size of these tribes varies greatly. Some, such as the Guarani and Yanomami, number in the tens of thousands. Others are virtually extinct – only six Akuntsu survive, for example.

Along with Suriname, Brazil is the only South American country that does not recognise the rights of Indians to the ownership of theri land, in violation of international law. Although there is a department of Indian affairs [FUNAI] and some government projects are aimed at the indigenous population, in many states the authorities do little to protect the Indians who, throughout the 20th century, have become extinct at an average rate of one tribe every two years. Today, the existence of Brazil’s tribal peoples is seriously threatened by racism, a general impunity for crimes committed against them, deforestation, mining, hydroelectric projects, roads and a rapid increase in the cultivation of biofuels, especially soya, sugar cane and maize.

The key to their survival is a proper recognition of their land rights by the Brazilian government, and the full observance of both ILO Convention 169 (the key international law on tribal people, ratified by Brazil in 2002), and of the UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.

Source: Survival International

When Europeans first arrived in South America, the Guarani were among the first peoples they met. At that time, the Guarani numbered more than 1.5 million, spread across present-day Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. Today only a fraction of that number survive. In Brazil there are three Guarani groups, of which the Kaiowa is the most numerous, numbering around 30,000. They live in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, in the southern part of Brazil, near the border with Paraguay.

The Guarani-Kaiowa are the descendants of those indigenous people who, at the end of the 1600s, refused to enter the Jesuit missions. Despite centuries of contact with foreigners, they have maintained their own distinct identity, and are a profoundly spiritual people. Many communities have a communal prayer house and a religious leader, the pajé, whose authority is based on prestige rather than power. All Guarani share a religion that attributes supreme importance to the earth, the origin and source of life, and gift of the ‘great father’, Ñande Ru. The Guarani experience the invasion of their land not only as theft, but also as a serious assault on their very identity.

Their problems

The Guarani of Brazil suffer terribly from the loss of almost all their land, which has been steadily taken over and destroyed by ranchers and farmers since the end of the 1800s. ‘Mato Grosso’ means ‘thick forest’ but there is barely any forest left. In the last fifteen years, much of the (already small) area that the Kaiowa have been trying to protect has been lost, and today it measures less than 25,000 hectares. Some Kaiowa live in small government reserves completely surrounded by ranches and plantations, others in shantytowns on the edges of the cities. None have enough land to sustain them through hunting, fishing and agriculture, and many children suffer from severe malnutrition.

In order to survive, adults and young people are forced to find work as seasonal labourers in the sugar cane plantations and alcohol distilleries that surround their lands.

Brazil has been one of the world’s leading biofuels producers for decades, and most of its cars can run on ethanol. The country also aims to become a leading exporter of ethanol, with ambitious plans to export 26 billion litres a year by 2010. Much of the sugar cane from which the ethanol is produced is grown on the land previously occupied by the Guarani’s forests. In Mato Grosso do Sul state alone, there are eleven sugar mills and ethanol distilleries, with another thirty under construction, and plans for a total of sixty.

Three months of work in conditions of semi-slavery often provide only a few tens of dollars per person, but even this last means of support is drying up, as increasing mechanisation renders the previously large workforce unnecessary.

In the last 20 years, over 517 Guarani-Kaiowa have committed suicide: many were young people. The youngest, Luciane Ortiz, was only 9 years old. Tired of waiting for the authorities to intervene, for some years now the communities have begun to reoccupy their lands (in actions known as retomadas) provoking violent reactions from the farmers and their gunmen who intimidate, beat up and even kill the Indians.

Source: Survival International

Survival was founded in London in 1969 in response to the genocide of Indians in the Brazilian Amazon. Since then, it has continued to grow, expanding its range of action around the world. Its mission is to help tribal peoples to defend their lives, their lands and their human rights, in the face of persecution, racism and genocide.

Non-political and not affiliated to any religious organisation, in order to maintain its integrity and independence, Survival does not accept money from any national government. This ensures it retains a powerful and independent voice, and makes it reliant on individual supporters who provide nearly all of its funds. Thanks to a long history of campaigning, support and mobilising public opinion, Survival has had many successes, helping dozens of tribal peoples to protect their lives, restore their hope for the future, and ensure their right to decide their own ways of life, from Brazil to Siberia, Australia to Africa.

Survival also works in schools, teaching children that cultural diversity is something to be valued, and that tribal peoples are not ‘primitive’, just different.

Today, Survival is working on human rights abuses affecting some 80 tribes.

Survival has been conducting an intensive campaign in support of the Guarani for many years, for their territorial rights to be recognised by the government, and for the return of lands illegally occupied by colonists, ranchers and farmers. Although Brazil does not recognise Indians’ land ownership rights, according to the Constitution the government is obliged to demarcate and protect Indian territories, something Survival is pressing the authorities to fulfil as a matter of urgency.

Survival has offices in London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin and Amsterdam, and supporters in 94 countries.

For more information, and a copy of Survival’s report ‘Disinherited – Indians of Brazil’, contact Survival on +44 207 6878700, info@survival-international.org