'Genocide' fears for isolated tribes as ex-missionary named to head Brazil agency

[Judi Lynn]

Last edited Wed Feb 5, 2020, 10:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Jair Bolsonaro’s ‘dangerous’ appointment of Ricardo Lopes Dias threatens remote indigenous people, UN special rapporteur says

Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Wed 5 Feb 2020 14.03 EST

Brazil has put a former evangelical missionary in charge of its isolated indigenous tribes, provoking concern among indigenous groups, NGOs, anthropologists and even government officials, who fear the government of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, is overseeing a new push to spread Christianity among Brazil’s indigenous people.

The appointment of Ricardo Lopes Dias, an anthropologist and evangelical pastor, to head the department for isolated and recently contacted tribes at the indigenous agency Funai, was announced on Wednesday.

Dias will have detailed information on 107 isolated tribes, including monitoring and location studies. Brazil has more “voluntarily isolated” tribes – some of whom are believed to have hidden from white society after massacres and epidemics – than any other country.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, said: “This is a dangerous decision that may have the potential to cause genocide among isolated indigenous people.”

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/05/brazil-indigenous-tribes-missionary-agency-ricardo-lopes-dias-christianity-disease

[Judi Lynn]

1. "Saved" to death

All they want is to live in peace. But many uncontacted indigenous people have lost their lives and cultures to Christian missionaries, who see it as their role to evangelise the Indians.

“My daughter is in there. Every night I see her in my dreams, and I know that some day she will join the others to come and fetch us”, says Shury, pointing into the forest.

The forest where just a few years ago he lived in isolation with his wife and mother in-law, Fuenea and Asto, and the rest of the group. The forest where they lived as their people had always done. Until destiny took an abrupt turn.

Missionaries and strange objects
“Before the others left, they said they would never have anything to do with us or the missionaries", Shury says.
Now he is a “newly contacted” Mastanahua Indian, always looking for food to feed himself and the rest of his family. Always hungry and on the move. Always unhappy.

Since the 1990s, missionaries from the US missionary agency Pioneers have tried to contact isolated indigenous groups in the region where Shury and the others lived. The missionaries built the village where Shury is now staying, and from there they sought out the footpaths that Shury’s people used as well as their settlement in the rainforest.

The missionaries put out enticing gifts to lure the Indians. Shury recalls the strange objects that suddenly appeared on their trails.

“It took a long time before we would even touch them,” he says. “But when we did, we thought the metal things in particular, like knives and machetes, were very tempting.”

Let their guard down
The forest dwellers became more incautious as time went by and let the missionaries come closer. Once, when the missionaries sent in some Indians who speak a related language to the one Shury and his group speak, Shury went to meet them, and traded for several items. For the next two years there was sporadic contact between the missionaries and Shury’s group, with the only ostensible purpose being the exchange of gifts.

More:
https://www.regnskog.no/en/isolatedtribes/saved-to-death