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In the Menkragnoti Indigenous Land, we are resisting more than just COVID
By:   []
Date: None

I overcame COVID-19 with the medicine the shamans found in the forest, made up of leaves, vines, and roots, which I drank as tea all day. They bring these medicines for both for the infected and for others in the villages, as a form of prevention.

At the beginning of the pandemic, there were no drugs for treatment at the village health posts, so health workers had to send infected patients to the nearby city of Novo Progresso.

According to a report from one of the infected patients, he arrived at the city’s municipal hospital. He was isolated without receiving medical care, starving, and without receiving visitors for two days. He survived because he decided to flee the hospital.

He took refuge in an indigenous health centre (one of the Casas de Salud Indígena, or CASAI), but there, he was also isolated and left without adequate care. It was then that he asked his wife to send him traditional medicines from the jungle. After a few days of treatment with our medicine, he was finally cured.

Most of the people in the Menkragnoti IL became infected with COVID-19: a total of 282, according to DSEI Rio Tapajós, as of 18 September 2020. All were treated with the same medicine. Nobody died. No one.

We will continue to resist

For those who do not know our reality, we live among the Brazilian fauna and, for some years now, we have been persecuted by the government. There are plans for large projects in or around our territory because we have a lot of natural resources within the Menkragnoti IL.

They want to exploit the land and the people who live there at any cost. They think that there is no life there, but there is – and lots of it!

We depend on the forest and the river to survive. We are part of the forest, and the forest is part of us. We will continue to resist. To fight for our rights, we created our own NGO called the Kabu Institute. Today, the Kabu Institute performs the function that should belong to the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), such as monitoring and controlling the territory.

For us, FUNAI no longer exists. Today, it is run by politicians in favour of extractive and agribusiness interests. We are the ones who continue the work and will always defend our indigenous territory because we are the greatest guardians and protectors of the rainforest, the Amazon, and Brazilian biodiversity.

It is time for non-indigenous people to recognise that we are the first inhabitants of this land. We are not occupying your lands, which would otherwise be “productive”. You have invaded us and are living on our land.

You must recognise and respect indigenous people and our history in this territory, which you now call Brazil.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/land-indigenous-menkragnoti-brazil-pandemic-en/