Time spent farming

until 1984

The struggle goes far back, to an ancient time, scarcely documented, purposely forgotten, erased. Struggles were local and, dispersed, led by specific peoples or villages. But also in major strategic mobilizations, involving various ethnic groups in political agreements to confront harsh realities.

Powerful voices, always. Resistance against the war that began in 1500 and continues to this day.

The late 1970s, still in the midst of the military rule, alongside major projects to occupy the Amazon, with all the violence and direct impact on indigenous populations, ushered a new threat: the Emancipation Law.

This proposal for ethnic cleansing by the Geisel government was put into effect in 1978 with the intention of ‘rapid integration of the Indians, and consequent compulsory emancipation’, eliminating all ethnic diversity in the country in a maximum of 30 years.

This attack mobilized anthropologists, legal professionals journalists, students, researchers and broad sectors of Brazilian society. The outrage led to the emergence of Pro-Indian Commissions in several states of the federation, supporting initiatives to inform the population and guarantee the manifestation of indigenous groups.

The São Paulo Pro-Indian Commission, housed in the Dominican Convent building in Perdizes, has published a series of booklets featuring articles and invaluable information in support of the debate on indigenous rights. And from 1981 onwards, it housed a small structure of the indigenous movement that was organizing itself in the city through the Union of Indigenous Nations.

It was then, in the early 1980s, that the time began for meetings, trips and conversations amongst indigenous people and leaders from different ethnic groups. A time for recognizing the territory, collecting seeds and to ready the soil for planting.

The earliest audio recordings in the collection of the Núcleo de Cultura Indígena date from 1983, but two earlier historical recordings, despite being fragments, record important events: the first brings excerpts from the 1980 Indigenous Assembly in Campo Grande and the second, the last moments of the great Meeting of Leaders held by the Pro-Indian Commission of São Paulo in April 1981, attended by 32 indigenous peoples.