The Kayapo & REsistance l

2 Kayapó: History of Encroachment BakairíYanomami Kayapó

3 Penetration of Kayapó Territory  1800s rubber boom  : ½ Kayapó died of diseases  1970s highways & settlement  1980s mega-development projects  Dams, mining, lumbering, ranching, agribusinesses  Kayapó rights to resources were not recognized

4 600 mi. Kayapo Reserve Mine Xikrin

5 Damn Dams!  1975: ELECTRONORTE surveyed Amazon for hydroelectric potential  1980 planned 6 dams on Xingu, 1 on Iriri rivers  Tucuruí dam, built by Electronorte in the 1980s, displaced 40,000 people and pushed them deeper into poverty  Submerged rotting vegetation from the dam now contributes one-sixth of Brazil's total greenhouse gas emissions

6 Tucuruí Dam

7 Kayapó: Out of the Forest  Illustrates Kayapó resistance and world-wide protest over the dam projects

8 “Out of the Forest”  1989 Organized resistance of Kayapó to building of hydroelectric dams  Was a turning point  Unprecedented: formed alliance among 28 nations, with 3000 people—led by Paikan  Traditional enemies  Many had never left villages  600 traveled 400 mi. up Xingu to Altamira  Drew on tradition of militancy  Guerrilla theater  Sophisticated organization & use of technology

9  1989: 2 Kayapó leaders & anthropolgist Darrell Posey went to Washington to lobby against the dams  On return to Brazil, were arrested  Appeared in court in ceremonial dress, judge ordered to dress in shirt & pants  “This is the way we dress for great solemnities”  International protest led World Bank to suspend loans for the dams in the 1990s

10 The Belo Monte Dam Complex  Today Brazil's electric company, Electronorte, is moving ahead with plans to build the Belo Monte Dam, one of the world’s three largest dams, with a capacity of equivalent to 8 nuclear plants  The cost of the dam is $3.8 billion and bids for the dam privatized

11 Who Benefits?  G.E., Westinghouse supplied turbines, generators  Aluminum smelters (Alcoa, Shell), mines, MNCs are primary energy consumers  Alcoa aluminum foundry will use most of the energy to produce 800,000 tons of aluminum per year

12 Impact  The Belo Monte reservoir will flood 400 square kilometers of agricultural lands and forest and will directly impact the reserve of indigenous people & part of the city of Altamira  Thousands of families will be relocated, including 9 indigenous nations  With the Altamira reservoir, it will flood 6140 km including the Xingu Reservation  Altamira will produce methane emissions that contribute to global warming

13 What is the Current Status?  On May 30, 2003, a court order put a stop to work on the Belo Monte project due to concerns about its impact on the environment  In 2005, the national congress rapidly approved the project  President Lula da Silva presented a bill that would reduce indigenous reserves by 1/3 of their present area

14 Brazilian Government’s Assumptions  “Progress” – New sources of energy  Economic development for profit  Indians seen as “primitive,” obstacles to development (unilineal evolution)  FUNAI policy: assimilation, a tool for liberating Indigenous lands for whites

15 The Brazilian government considers indigenous peoples an obstacle to development

16 Kayapó View of Development  They were never consulted, treated like children  Lack interest in profit  Lack concept of land as commodity  Land is the condition for their continued survival

17 Rainforest Destruction  Note the contrast between indigenous resource management & outsiders  Amazon rainforest = 40% world’s forests  25% is now gone  Irreversible changes to ecology & climate

18 What will be left of the Xingu river for the people of Xingu? --Dema