‘We are at the mercy of the Brazilian state’, says Sonia Guajajara

History often repeats itself: indigenous teenagers leave their communities to study and end up in family homes where they are sexually abused. Another threat is the rampant advance of mining on demarcated lands, where children end up exposed to violence, including sexual violence.

“We are looked at with exoticism. What is our identity ends up becoming a culture of subservience and inferiority for us, indigenous women”, says Sonia Guajajara, indigenous leader elected one of the most influential people in the world by the American magazine Time.

Guajajara is also an ambassador for the #AgoraVcSabe campaign. Promoted by Instituto Liberta, raising awareness against sexual abuse of children and adolescents is the cause of the year on the Folha Social+ platform.

The indigenous leader emphasizes that sexual abuse against indigenous children and adolescents is extremely veiled.

Cases such as that of the 12-year-old girl, raped and killed in Roraima in May, and the two Guarani Kaiowá indigenous girls, aged 12 and 14, who were found this month with signs of sexual abuse and torture in the region of Amambai (MS) .

In November 2020, a five-year-old girl was raped and killed by asphyxiation: Ana Beatriz Sateré-Mawé was taken from the hammock where she slept in the Sateré-Mawé community in Amazonas by three men in the middle of the night. Her body was found in the middle of the woods.

“Cases like these are common, but it is extremely difficult to denounce and investigate”, says Sonia Guajajara.

After the Yanomami girl was reported, the Araçá community was the victim of an arson attack. “The lack of information on the subject is one of our difficulties: we are at the mercy of the Brazilian State. We have no protection in this regard.”

The activist points out that the authorities have no way of reaching the communities and investigating the cases. According to Guajajara, entering indigenous villages to bring information and awareness is also a challenge.

Data from the Report on Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil (2020) indicate that indigenous children and adolescents are victims of abuse within the family environment: of the five cases highlighted in the document, two victims are adolescents and one child — the latter, in Acre, she was repeatedly abused by her father, according to a complaint from the Guardianship Council.

For Guajajara, the lack of public policies is an obstacle to combating sexual violence against indigenous children and adolescents as much as silence.

“It’s still a veiled subject, full of taboos. What I know is what comes as denunciations, there are no official figures.”

The report itself is the work of the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), an organization linked to the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB). “The government claims that the fact that we are in urban territories diminishes our identity, but this is untrue”, he explains.

“It is necessary that both the Union and the states have adequate policies to meet these specificities, taking into account the identity of indigenous peoples. Our reality seems very far from the State.”

VIRTUAL WALK

The second virtual march of the #AgoraVcSabe movement took place on June 14th. Another two will be held until the end of the campaign, in August.

To participate, just enter the site and record the same sentence that will be said by all participants, an invitation to break the silence around the issue. “Sexual violence against children and adolescents is a reality. I was a victim and now you know it!”

the cause of Combating Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents has the support of Liberta Institutepartner of the Social+ platform.