Massacre in Brazil

[Hein van der Voort]

Dear subscribers to the Endangered Languages List,

Herewith I would like to support mr. Nilson Gabas' call of 5
november for support to the un- and recently contacted Indians
of RondÂnia.

I myself am a descriptive linguist from Holland conducting
fieldwork among the Koai , or Kwaza, speakers in an Indigenous
reserve in the South of RondÂnia, Brazil, more or less in
between the Omer? and the Chupinguaia Indians. My promotor is
Prof. Adelaar of Leiden University. I am visiting researcher
of the Museu Goeldi in Belem, Brazil. I was in the field for a
period of around one year, and hope to return there in 1997
again, to do final checks and to complete my data. (I have
been a subscriber to the list for some time already, and
apologize for not having introduced myself before)

The Koai  language seems to be a genetically isolated langua-
ge. In the case of the south of Rondonia this means that it
has been spoken there for over 7000 years at least, just like
other Rondonian 'isolates' like Kanoe and Aikana. It appears
that their traditional cultures used to be very similar. The
Indians in S.Rondonia shared in fact a cultural complex,
across linguistic boundaries, including the Tupari family
languages.

Rondonia is one of the linguistically most diverse areas of
south America, and is considered as one of the starting points
of important south American migration routes and subsequent
populations.

Of many of the S. Rondonian languages and cultures, practi-
cally nothing is known, described or documented. Meanwhile,
since the first contacts in the early 1940s (Levi-Strauss was
there in the late 1930s) these Indian nations have been deci-
mated and acculturated and the majority of the remaining
Indians now lives in reserves (In Rondonia  live less than
5000 Indians). We are really only so lucky to still have some
speakers of the languages, and some old people who remember
how they used to live before contact. Regretfully, there has
been practically no substantial scientific research, and today
even within the reserves there is great risk everything will
disappear before documentation.

With my Koai  consultant I visited the Indians of Omer? in May
1996. We tried to establish whether the languages were related
in any way to Koaia or Aikana. My consultant was absolutely
fascinated by the Omer? Indians. Even though he is relatively
acculturated himself (note the fact that many acculturated and
evangelized Indians in our reserve think that 'primitive naked
Indians' should become modern), he studied all the traditional
things the Omere Indians wore, their arrows, their plaNtation,
their shamanism, and he was impressed. Here he saw, and recog-
nized, for the first time with his own eyes, the way of life
of his own ancestors, which he only knew from stories told by
his old parents. (and which was by the missionaries and most
other westerners usually treated and spoken of only with contempt.)

Had Antenor Duarte and his colleague farmers succeeded in
their mission to discreetly kill these Indians, the Indians in
my reserve would never have had the chance to encounter and
witness a living example of their beautiful past anymore. And
science would never had a chance to document anything of that
bygone cultural complex at all.

The characteristics of the uncontacted Indians around Xupingu-
aia are very remarkable in this context: they seem to diverge
considerably from the cultural complex.

The concerned FUNAI department does a very good job in protec-
ting the Omer? Indians. And there are many sensible people in
Rondonia and in Brazil. The biggest problem is formed by the
ruthless cattle ranchers. Their only aim is to increase their
personal wealth and they are politically very powerful, espe-
cially in Rondonia. Remember that 50% of Brazil is in the
hands of 1% of the total population. The Omer? Indians are
still in great danger despite the fact that a judge managed to
declare the Omere region as a (provisionally and temporarily)
prohibited area. How much more threatened, then, are the
uncontacted and unidentified Indians? (those of the Xupinguaia
region representing just one case among several others).

Note that the government of Rondonia wants to be inter-
nationally respected, and has visited Europe to talk to presi-
dents and other politicians, trying to raise subsidies for the
'modern development' of Rondonia (I recall that governor
Valdir Raupp was received in Germany and Italia in early
1996). The same government systematically bows to the ranchers
and timber companies, by whom it can be actually considered to
be owned.

Therefore the ongoing violence against the sparse defenseless
remnants of the aboriginal Rondonian peoples must be
internationally criticized.

Hein

Hein van der Voort
Instituut voor Algemene Taalwetenschap
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Spuistraat 210				tel.: +31-20-6934541/5253859
1012 VT, Amsterdam				fax.: +31-20-5253052
Holland								email:
hein.van.der.voort at let.uva.nl