Funai’s military era is over, says Sônia Guajajara, future minister of Indigenous Peoples

Future Minister of Indigenous Peoples in the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), Sônia Guajajara (PSOL-SP) says she intends to “demilitarize” Funai (National Indian Foundation). The body was occupied during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) by police and military in the main strategic positions.

“The military era is over, these are new times. These positions will be occupied by indigenous people or by non-indigenous people appointed by the indigenous people,” he told the Sheet in her first interview after being announced for Esplanada.

A few hours after the choice was made public, she received the report barefoot in one of the buildings now occupied by the Economy and which will house her portfolio from January 1st.

She said that she will not change her position against agribusiness and mining —”with this totally predatory model, nobody goes very far”—, but that she will seek to talk to build a new awareness for the production system in Brazil.

“This needs to start with us, who suffered the first impacts of the denial of land demarcation in order to serve the agribusiness and mining sectors”, he added.

What is already defined about the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples? We didn’t have much time to think. We have a structure that was designed by the working group, with everyone who participated, in agreement with the representations.

For us, starting with this physical structure [um andar em um prédio ministerial], even that we imagined it would be difficult to have right at the beginning. But now we are starting with a guaranteed physical structure and we are going to have more or less 140 servers that will be transferred from the public service or those that will be appointed by us.

How will the folder be organized? There will be three secretariats: one for territorial promotion, one for management —which we intend to implement Pngati [Política Nacional de Gestão Territorial e Ambiental de Terras Indígenas] and all territorial protection policies—and one of institutional articulation, because the ministry will work a lot transversally with other portfolios.

Funai continues as an autarchy, now under this ministry, and we will also have an indigenous ombudsman. We want to recreate, at the beginning of the term, the National Council for Indigenous Policy, which will have indigenous and mystery representations.

And what will the portfolio budget be? Yesterday [quarta], we talked to President Lula and he said we should talk directly to the Planning, Economy and Civil House. They will allocate an amount as an additive for the functioning of the ministry. It will be talked about so that we can think at least how we start next year.

And we are also going to work on building the fund for indigenous biomes, the FBI, which will not be part of the structure of the ministry, but will be linked. The fund will raise international money, mainly, to implement our actions beyond the public budget, in the five regions of the country.

Consideration was given to using Funai’s budget for the ministry. Has it changed? Funai’s budget today is around R$800 million, and it’s already tight. We are looking for an addendum, for supplementary credit, which is for the functioning of the ministry.

In addition, we have the mission of articulating with the Ministry of Health the budget recomposition of Sesai [Secretaria Especial de Saúde Indígena]because today there is a very high risk of a collapse in indigenous health.

When will the first names of the folder be revealed? We have notes made by our working group on indigenous governance, the next step is to define. We are going to work in a way that includes the five regions of Brazil and the six biomes, considering regional organizations and this organizational model of the indigenous movement.

We are also going to discuss the name for Sesai and we proposed the creation of a special secretariat for indigenous education, at MEC. Let’s see if Education will comply.

What will be the first actions of the ministry? Right from the start, we want to visit areas in the most serious situations, such as the Yanomami territory, which has a 150 km clandestine road transporting prospectors, with heavy machinery, connivance of businessmen and politicians.

We are going to look for a transversal action between the indigenous ministry and the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Police, to promote the removal of these invaders.

There is also the situation of legal mining in Munduruku territory, which is very serious, and Mato Grosso do Sul, which is experiencing an absurdly violent situation, with murders, deaths on the road or even suicide due to the very precarious conditions of the territory, which has nowhere to plant.

And what about the process of demarcating indigenous lands? The lands that no longer have any legal or administrative impediment, we present in the transition report and we are now going to work for Lula to do this [a homologação] in the first hundred days of government.

Afterwards, as Funai comes to the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, it will proceed with the attribution of the first stages of demarcation, the study, identification and delimitation. And then the Ministry of Justice passes to the indigenous ministry the attribution of making the declaratory ordinance, which then goes to the Civil House and the Presidency for ratification.

Who will preside over Funai? President Lula offered the presidency of Funai to congresswoman Joênia [Wapichana, da Rede-AP]. Let’s wait if she will accept. And we are also going to change the name of Fundação Nacional do Índio to Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas, but keeping the acronym Funai.

The Bolsonaro government has appointed police and military personnel to Funai. Y ‘ all ever study changing those names? The military era is over, these are new times. These positions will be held by indigenous people or by non-indigenous people appointed by the indigenous people. Our decision is to demilitarize, in the first days of government. Most of these positions are trusted and they will be automatically exonerated on the 31st. And there are some servers that we are going to ask for reassignment.

When Folha announced the choice of your name for the ministry, some leaders publicly defended that you remain in the Chamber and that Joênia assume the portfolio. How is the relationship with the indigenous movement? This reaction is natural, it is very difficult to make a representation that can contemplate and please everyone. At the beginning, my decision was not to give up my mandate, which was a huge achievement. We ran the campaign around the village of politics, and that is to be in Congress, in the Executive and also in the Judiciary, for which we even worked to nominate the lawyer Eloy Terena to the Federal Supreme Court, still in the Lula government.

In the Chamber, we will have Célia Xakriabá [PSOL-MG]Juliana Cardoso [PT-SP] and my substitute is Ivan Valente [PSOL-SP]historical defender of the indigenous agenda.

How will the dialogue with other areas of government, such as agro? I think that talking is possible, in the sense of finding points of convergence, but they are very conflicting interests. Both agribusiness and mining cause serious harm to indigenous peoples. It is difficult to defend mining, given that in our experience it only brings harm, there is no such thing as sustainable mining, just as there is no sustainable soy.

Now we need to really start thinking about sustainable agriculture, a change in food production systems, something that will take many years. Create a new awareness so that food production can guarantee income and also environmental protection.

If we stick with this totally predatory model, nobody gets very far. Our idea in this ministry is to seek this new awareness, and this needs to start with us, who suffered the first impacts of the denial of land demarcation in order to serve the agribusiness and mining sectors. We are going to maintain our position very firmly to, in fact, guarantee life.

Mrs. she stated, earlier, that she still needs to learn how to put on shoes. Because? It’s automatic, I sit down and the shoe comes off my foot! I’m going to wear a slipper right here, look, I’m going to walk around in here with it, because I can’t stand being in shoes all day. This is synonymous with being down to earth: I have to learn to put on shoes, but keeping my feet on the ground.

We are occupying a place that we have never occupied in our lives. And I always say we, because I’m not here alone, we’re here with a lot of people, with the indigenous movement. This ministry is a show of respect for our secular struggle, and we will do everything to ensure that no one ever comes to destroy this ministry again.