REPOT Nº 16 URIHI Foreword the Message from Davi Kopenawa
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REPOT Nº 16 URIHI Foreword The message from Davi Kopenawa Yanomami in this booklet was recorded at the end of 1991, and the interview with him in June 1992. Since then the situation of the Yanomami lndians has changed significantly. In February, after considerable national pressure, the Brazilian govermment launched the operation "Free Jungle II" to evict lhe gold-panners from the Yanomami lands. The idea was to force out the remaining gold-panners by stopping oil and food from entering the region and to prevent gold-panners from re-entering the region by cutting off access by air land and river. Early reports suggested that the operation was proving successful but later information did not confirm this. In an interview with the press in Brasilia on 23 March, Davi Kopenawa Yanomami said: "The gold-panners are digging holes and hiding oil and food in the jungle so that they can return later. Many powerful mining companies have interests in the Yanomami land”. According to reports from Boa Vista in late March, gold-panners were already flying back into the region. The monitoring of the air traffic of the "garimpeiros" proves totally inefficient. The authorities are unable to prevent them from returning to the Yanomami territory. Despite operation "Free Jungle II", the situation of the Indians remains as critical as ever. The Future of the Demini Health Project Message to Bruce Albert, taped by Lucimara Montejane. Demini, December 1991 Translated from the Yanomam into French by Bruce Albert, anthropologist. consultant to CCPY (ORSTOM, Paris) DAVI KOPENAWA YANOMAMI Bruce, here is what I think about what you call "the future". In the future, if we, the Yanomami, remain alone, if doctors stop coming here to teach us to use medicines, things are going to be bad. So far, none of us knows these things. We don't know how to read white people's writing, nor how to use medicines. You white people must teach us how to use the medicines: for malaria, or tuberculosis and for otther diseases. When our young people have learnt all this, we will be able to treat ourselves. That is what I think. Now that our lands have been demarcated, I want the Demini health project to continue. I want it to carry on for a long time. Without this project, I think more Yanomami are going to die. We don't know how to use your medicines; we can't treat ourselves. The Yanomami don't know these things; They don't understand white people's language. They can't yet read your writing. For this reason, the project must continue for a long time. First, you white people must come and treat us. Later, when your doctors have taught us to how we can treat ourselves, just as they treat us, that is, in the future, our young Yanomami, our children, will be able in their day to treat us, the way your doctors and nurses treat us. When they have learnt what is necessary, then we will be able to be on our own. We will treat ourselves, but you will continue to give us support, from afar. You will continue to help us. Meanwhile, we don't yet know all that we need to know. In the past, before the whites reached here, we were not ignorante. Our shamans knew how to treat us when the evil spirits of the forest, ne waribe, devoured our lifeblood When the spirit Riori attacked us, the shamans used to suck out the diseases that he had put in our body, and spit them out. But now, lhe shamans don't know how to do this with malaria and tuberculosis. These are diseases that have come from far away, that they don't know. Only white people's medicine can deal with them. If the sick person is treated with medicines when the illness is in its early stages, he will recover. This is what we think. This project must continue. It is working well: the Yanomami are treated when they are ill. This must continue. We treat people from Araca, Ajuricaba, Toototobi and also the Ayaobetheri, the Weyukutheri, the Shihometheri, the Mashababitheri. ...None of these Yanomami know how to treat white diseases, and this is why I want the project to continue. If it does not, people are going to start dying. I am not a doctor and there's nothing I can do. I am a shaman, but practicing shamanism doesn't enable me to see and destroy malaria. People die. Shamanism doesn't help people still die. We try to destroy the power of malaria, but if the sick don't take the pills they need, they die. And so I want my Demini project to continue. I want it to continue and I want it to expand. For this, I need to raise the necessary money together with those who are helping us. We are a long way from cities. We live deep in the forest. Because of all this, I am anxious. If the project doesn't continue, we shall be utterly bereft. The project must continue, and the Health Foundation (FNS) must carry on helping the Yanomami. If not, we are all going to die. If we are left alone, without doctors, we are going to disappear and the white people will occupy our lands, because they will be empty. (...)This is why I defend my project. We have to continue the work. The Yanomami cannot manage without it Later, in the future, our young people will learn to administer white people's medicines and then we will be able to look after ourselves. This is what I think. When the white doctors have taught us how to use their medications, the pills for malaria and tuberculosis; when we know how to use them, then we will can carry out the treatments ourselves. But for now, the whites must carry on treating us. This is what I think. We don't yet have young people who know the white people's language well and can write; Who know how to examine for malaria, who know what malaria looks like under a microscope. We don't yet know these things. But we will learn, and one day we will be able to look after ourselves. In the future, when I am old, the .Yanomami will have learnt this, and then I am dead they will carry on looking after themselves. This is what I think. You say "future"; we say 'yutuha" (in a long time). When, in a long time, we who are here are dead, the 'Yanomami will not disappear. We are not very many, but Omamë, who created us, will continue to protect us. We will continue to exist. We will survive, but the malaria has to end. I am afraid in case there are no more shamans in the future, because white people's presence darkens our thinking. Now, the young are afraid to practice shamanisrn. Unfortunately, they want only to imitate the whites. This worries me. Next time you come, we will talk together about this. We will also talk to the elders so that they might initiate new shamans. When there were no medicines, in the past, the shamans did their work and only a few died. Now it's no good trying to destroy the shawara (epidemic); it retaliates fiercely and kills even our shamanic spirits (shabiribe or hekurabe). This is why I want to continue my project. To work as much with the project's doctors as with the shamans. This way, it will be all right. The shawara is very strong, but this way we will win. The shamans and their attendant spirits are friends of the medicines. The shamans attack the spirits of the shawara and the sick take the medicines. This way they will get well, and this is why I want the project to continue. This is what I want to say to you. You will pass this on to other white people. When they ask you: "what are the Yanomami going to think if the whites halt their medical work?" "How are they going to cure themselves?" you will reply: "the Yanomami don't yet know how to use the medicines; we need to teach them, and only after we have done that will they be able to take care of themselves!" We have Shamans, but the white people's shawara attacks the shamanic spirits which try to destroy it. Our shamanic spirits are very brave, but the shawara is like a huge cloud, its evil spirits sap the lifeblood of the elders, of the children, the women and the men, and consumes it. This is why we continue to want white people's medicines and for the project to carry on. We work in places far away in the forest, below Wanabiú and in Balaú ...far from where any white people live. It's a very long way and the Yanomami have no medicines. If they get malaria, they die. This is why my project must continue. Later, a long time hence, the Yanomami will grow again. This is what will be good. It is not enough for me to work alone on a project a the Demini Post. We Yanomami don't have aeroplanes. If white people work with us, we can call planes and go and treat people far away. And then we can beat the shawara. When white people come and help us, they are truly our friends. Do not think: "they will defend their lands, they already have them demarcated, now let them take care of themselves and live by themselves." This mustn't happen any more.The whites came near us, and they brought the shawara here.