The power of the voices

1986 – 1987

Indigenous voices rich with history, knowledge and strength for the fight go beyond the rooms, meeting spaces, and assemblies and onto the radio airwaves, reaching a diverse audience of thousands of people.

The Programa de Índio – a pioneering, innovative, provocative, space for culture and politics – gains prominence not only in São Paulo, where it airs on USP radio, but in many other cities that rebroadcast the program and in other countries where it is known as an example of the protagonism and innovation of the indigenous peoples of our country.

Jornal Indígena is back in cassette version. Five one-hour special editions are produced with information for villages across the country on the progress of the National Constituent Assembly. 800 copies distributed are distributed through a network specially set up so that the tapes could reach the most distant and isolated territories

Cassette tapes are the main technology at the time, used for communication between villages, for messages from the villages to allies in the cities and to the government, strengthening the important role of the oral tradition of indigenous cultures in the struggle for rights.

Lectures and participations by leaders are transcribed and become books. Images of indigenous people singing and dancing with their ritual garment are all over the news. Despite no indigenous representatives were elected to the Constituent Assembly, the indigenous nations, even if they were not recognized, proved their existence with the strength of their voices and strategies of articulation with allies. The chants helped and continue to help keep the sky overhead.

“Nobody respects what they don’t know”. This quote from Wabuá, an elder of the Xavante people from the village of Pimentel Barbosa, now guides all the work of the Núcleo de Cultura Indígena with actions and projects to bring the strength and importance of indigenous traditions to the people of the cities, institutions and authorities.

Exhibitions, audio-visual projects and cultural events are being held to show the urgency of defending the rights of indigenous peoples.