Events

Bright Flower and the Scars from the Stone (Flor Brilhante e as cicatrizes da pedra, Jade Rainho, 2013)

Bright Flower is the matriarch of an indigenous family of Guarani-Kaiowá shamans living in the Reserve of Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. There, deprived of their original way of life, they struggle to survive preserving ancient knowledge and culture, while dealing with the effects and ailments caused by the continuous explosions of an asphalt plant, which has been destroying and exploiting a sacred stone in the territory of the village for over 40 years.

The Dark Side of Green (À Sombra de um Delírio Verde, An Baccaert, Cristiano Navarro and Nico Muñoz, 2011)

In the southern border region of Mato Grosso do Sul, on the border with Paraguay, the most populous indigenous nation of the country silently struggles for its territory, trying to contain the advance of its powerful enemies. Expelled from their lands because of the continuous process of colonization, more than 40,000 Guarani Kaiowá live nowadays on less than 1% of their original territory. Thousands of hectares of sugarcane are planted on their lands by multinational companies that, in agreement with the government, present ethanol to the world as an environmentally friendly and “clean” fuel. Without their lands and forests, the Guarani Kaiowá have struggled for years with an epidemic of malnutrition that afflicts their children. With no alternative for subsistence, adults and children are exploited in the cane fields for grueling labor. On the production line of the “clean” fuel, the Federal Public Prosecutor constantly sues the owners of the plants because of the child and slave labor found there. Amid the delirium of the "green gold fever" (the name given to the sugarcane), indigenous leadership that face this imposition of power many times find death ordered by big farmers as their fate.

Events from our Partners

Co-sponsored by Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies at Brown.