Xingu peoples use communication to defend the forest

A group of 26 communicators are using the technology to defend the Xingu River basin, located in Pará and Mato Grosso. The basin is heavily impacted by infrastructure works and the affected communities have found communication a tool to fight for their rights.

The communicators are part of the Xingu+ Network, a 32-member network made up of indigenous and riverside organizations from the Xingu River basin and other civil society organizations. These organizations mobilize through the network to denounce threats to territories and think of strategies to face these pressures.

To carry out the work, the communicators record it in photos, videos, audio formats, and then disseminate it among the network members. With this, everyone is aware of what is happening in the basin region. “What happens, for example, in Terra do Meio, in Altamira, which is to the north of the basin, affects the Panará, who are to the south. No matter how far apart they are, everyone is affected. Because they are bathed by the same river, which is the Xingu River”, explains Silia Moan, coordinator of the Xingu+ Communicators Network.

The work of communicators emerged in 2019, according to Moan, as a demand coming from the members of the Xingu+ Network. “So that there was a greater circulation of information among the organizations in the network. And so that the communicators could also be aware of the threats that hover over the territories, ”he says.

The Xingu+ Network

The communicators’ work is part of the Xingu+ Network’s communication strategy, whose governance structure works through an Executive Secretariat, which is made up of the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and the Xingu+ Council, made up of 12 councilors: six men and six women, who meet constantly to make decisions regarding the network.

“The Xingu+ Network articulation emerged in 2013, very inspired by the movements that fought against the construction of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant. And it plays a key role in monitoring the infrastructure works that threaten the Xingu corridor. There are 26 million hectares of forest that are in dispute. In addition, there are several works that are threatening the lives of these peoples”, says Moan.

She is a journalist at ISA, responsible for mobilizing the communicators, organizing the information produced by them, proposing solutions to the problems presented, thinking about didactic materials to support the communicators’ production and, finally, encouraging exchanges between the communicators and, also, between them and their organizations.

“Communicators are the arms of their associations; they communicate what associations find important. And the associations are the political instruments of the territories. So it’s important for communicators to strengthen relationships with their organizations,” says Moan.

Internal communication

The communicators generate the information that circulates among all the organizations in the Xingu+ Network. The main objective, therefore, is to strengthen an internal communication system within the Xingu basin. Half of the 26 communicators are men and the other half are women. According to Moan, “Women are able to connect with other agendas, and everyone understood that it made sense for communities to always nominate a man and a woman”.

They operate in the Extractive Reserves of Terra do Meio, Rio Xingu, Iriri River/Maribel and Riozinho do Anfrisio. It has communicators in the Trincheira-Bacajá, Arara, Paquiçamba, Apyterewa, Kaiapó Indigenous Lands. And in the Xingu Indigenous Territories (TIX): Kisêdjê, Kalapalo, Ikpeng, Waurá, Kaiwawete, Yudjá and in the Panará TI.

The communicators also contribute with the information that is disseminated outside the network, bringing information to the world through the eyes of those who live in the forest and directly suffer the impacts of works such as the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant. “The communicators have their own hearing linked to the territories, which reaches sounds that we, who are outside, cannot”, says Moan.

With this, they inform what is really important for their communities. “Of course, there are great professionals, journalists, and filmmakers, who are not indigenous and who do good work. But the look of the communicators is different because they dialogue with their leaders in a way that, many times, those who come from the outside cannot. They represent their people with integrity, as they expect to be represented,” he explains.

The coping strategies

Communicators work on several fronts. In April, for example, the largest mobilization of indigenous peoples in the country takes place, the Terra Livre Camp, in Brasília. The communicators go to the city to cover the meeting of leaders with the government, in visits to ministries, agencies and secretariats. In addition, the communicators also follow the agendas debated at the camp itself, to later inform their communities what was decided during the event, what are the bills that are being discussed in Congress, etc.

Another example is in the territory itself. When there is a theft of wood within the Xingu basin, the communicators monitor it using drones. Afterward, they inform the Xingu+ Network team that is in Brasilia. And this team monitors remotely, via satellite, to check the details of the theft, from when it happened, if any roads were opened because of it, etc.

As Moan says, “The communicators do the coverage down to earth, following closely what is happening in the territory”. She cites an important monitoring that took place in 2022. “During the elaboration of the Territorial and Environmental Management Plan (PGTA) in the Kaiapó Indigenous Land, the indigenous people saw a lot of smoke on the limits of the territory. That smoke escalated and started to affect their lives. The river started to get very hot, putting their lives at risk, as they use the river every day to fish, bathe, drink water and feed themselves. It was communicators who spread this information to the world, ”she recalls.

Many times riverside and indigenous people are doing an activity to cover the preparation of the PGTA and end up facing this type of situation, says Moan. Therefore, they are largely responsible for making this information circulate between the Xingu territories and also outside them. “To let everyone know what’s going on. After all, what happens in the Xingu also affects the lives of those outside the Xingu, we are seeing climate pressures and threats”, he warns.

Technology in the villages

The internet signal picks up in most of the territories where the Xingu+ Network operates. The antennas were installed during the pandemic so that communicators could report what was happening in communities and villages. And so that the team that was away could produce, together with them, the materials to face COVID-19.

Currently, Moan holds online meetings every 15 days with communicators, so they can share what is happening in the region. Cell phones are also a strong ally in communication strategies. The device is the main tool used to record and disseminate information.

Therefore, each communicator receives a cell phone with a good camera, which records in 4K, and a tripod. To make it possible for the communicator to carry out his work completely, some editing islands were set up along the basin: one in Altamira, one in the Kayapó, one at the Panará headquarters, and one at the Associação Terra Indígena do Xingu (ATIX), in Canarana.

The editing islands have a notebook and access to editing and image treatment software programs. On the islands, it is also possible to edit a podcast with a microphone. “The idea is that communicators who are in circulation can use these spaces to finalize their materials”, explains Moan.

The WhatsApp group, in particular, is widely used. “Sometimes they are in Brasilia and can’t stop to edit the material. Then they send the images through the group and the communicators who are in the territories do the editing”, he says.

Community life

Communicators work with the knowledge acquired during their own life trajectories. “The training happens all the time because the communication they do is not separated from their lives”, explains Moan. In this way, training is associated with the coverage they make of assemblies and other meetings, for example, during the preparation of the Territorial and Environmental Management Plan (PGTA).

Even so, in large meetings such as the Terra Livre Camp, for example, there is previous preparation. The ISA team meets a few days beforehand with the communicators to prepare the communication plan together with them, thinking about filming, the script, etc.

The expectation is that communicators will soon create a profile on Instagram. “This was a demand brought by the leaders of the communicators. They wanted to know, through the social network, what we were doing with the information they brought”, says Moan.

To meet this demand, there will be a meeting between the 18th and 21st of April, where the indigenous influencer Tukumã Pataxó will teach a workshop. And then, together with the communicators, think about a media plan and network strategies.

Strengthening of actions

According to Moan, the way information is handled depends on the audience you want to reach. “For example, if it is for Xingu communities, then it makes sense that it is an audiovisual production that circulates through WhatsApp. But if the target audience is riverside communities, it is better that it be an audio production, to be transmitted via radio, because that is the main form of communication for these communities, ”he explains.

Another way to stimulate the production of information is through exchanges between communicators. “Last year, for example, there was a meeting of Panará and Kayapó women. And together with the Panará communicators, Yudjá and Kawaiweté communicators participated in the coverage, so that they could understand what was happening there”, says Moan.

Recently, an exhibition was closed at the Moreira Salles Institute, in São Paulo, on the collection of communicators from the Xingu+ Network. “There are really nice pictures of them in action. They like to do penthouse icing. When there is a communicator that is filming, another is already recording this moment, ”he recalls.

To make these actions viable, advises Moan, it is necessary to constantly replace the cell phones that communicators use, acquire new editing programs, keep the computers working, etc. “That is why we are always looking for new support. And if there are people who can contribute voluntarily so that these communicators perfect their production techniques, that is very welcome”, he says.

The defense of the forest and culture

The Xingu+ Network was created through the confrontation with the work in Belo Monte. The hydroelectric plant generated a series of impacts. A case in evidence is that of piracema. “The places that were cradles for other fish to be born are dry. Thousands of eggs are dying. They are fish that are being lost and that are fundamental to the life of the Juruna, who are the people who protect this region”, says Moan.

The work has already been completed, so the main demand now is for the water times to be regulated. “This needs to be balanced so that the water can flow again and the fish can have their place of reproduction again”, explains Moan. For her, even if the impacts are localized, they increase until they reach people who live far away. “It is this notion that everyone needs to have! That it’s not just the Juruna that are being impacted, it’s Brazil and the world as a whole”.

Thus, the Xingu+ Network maintains contact with the inspection bodies, to send letters and relevant information that contribute to the defense of the forest and local culture. The preservation of culture is fundamental for the protection of the forest. At the same time, it is in the territory that culture is kept alive.

Moan remembers the history of the Panará, with whom he was recently. The communicators are making a series of records with the stories of the elderly. The Journalist Caco Barcelos, from the Profissão Repórter tv show, will make a special report on this:

“The Panará have a history of forced displacement. They were removed from their territory and lived among the Kaiapó, Kawaiweté and Kisêdjê. In the process, its population was reduced to 170 people. They fought to get back to their land. And last year, they completed 25 years of returning to traditional territory. Today, the population is 700 people”, he recalls.

Want to support this cause?

Visit the Xingu+ Network website!