International
Indigenous film bringing cross-border Amazon tribes together
| By AFP | Lina Vanegas |
In Colombia’s Amazon jungle, indigenous people of different nations, ethnicities and languages have come together to find a single voice in cinema to tell their own stories, rather than let outsiders do it.
One recent week, in the community of San Martin de Amacayacu in southern Colombia the local Tikuna tribe was joined for the first time by the Matis people of Brazil for a crash course on film.
“We didn’t know how to operate a camera so what they are doing is showing their experience, offering knowledge and perseverance,” Lizeth Reina, a 24-year-old Tikuna, told AFP.
The Matis, a tribe only contacted in 1976, acquired two video cameras in 2015 and were taught how to film by the Brazilian Center for Indigenist Labor (CTI) and the National Indian Foundation.
Last month, they made a seven-day journey along fast-moving rivers and almost impenetrable jungle paths to share their knowledge with this Colombian community of some 700 people.
As the boot camp got under way, a Matis with a distinctive facial tattoo, gave instructions on how to focus a video camera.
Around 10 Matis, known as “cat men” for the feline tattoos on their faces, had arrived from their home region in the Yavari valley — an area larger than Austria and rife with drug trafficking and illegal mineral extraction, logging and fishing.
British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Pereira were murdered there in June.
The Yavari valley has the largest number of voluntarily isolated communities in the world.
“It’s not easy getting here, we suffered a bit, but it’s very emotional,” filmmaker Pixi Kata Matis, 29, said of the journey to San Martin.
‘Future memories’
Tikunas laughed as their guests grimaced while sipping masato, a fermented yucca-based drink passed around in a cup made from the hard rind calabash tree fruit.
Films were projected inside the maloca, a cultural, political, social and spiritual center.
Hundreds of dazzled spectators watched as images of hunts with blowguns, bows and arrows flashed before their eyes, as well as the tattoo festival that marks the coming of age of young Matis.
“We have to show other people and the whites that we have our own identity,” said Kata Matis.
The films “can help keep memories for the future … so we don’t forget our traditions,” added Yina Moran, 17.
Placed in mixed groups, the Tikunas proposed three short films on seeds, medicinal plants and masato, with the help of Matis, the CTI and the French association ForestEver.
“The cameras blended into the landscape and families were more willing to share and communicate,” said ForestEver coordinator Claire Davigo.
‘Exotic reports’
San Martin de Amacayacu, surrounded by a lush natural park, is made up of wooden houses, some with colorful painted walls, that are home to several generations of the same family.
Apprentices and their mentors spent the day conducting interviews and filming daily life.
“The communication was wonderful because although we hardly speak Portuguese, we understood each other through our cultures,” said Moran.
In the afternoon, locals made their way down to the river to wash clothes or bathe. At night, generators were fired up to provide four hours of electricity. After that, the noise stopped to make way for jungle sounds.
A decade after they were first contacted, the Matis were already the “stars of exotic reports” by US, Japanese, French and British journalists, according to the CTI.
Foreigners were captivated by their body art and accessories: ears pierced with huge ornaments, fine rods passing through noses and lips, face tattoos and bodies draped in jewelry.
But Kata Matis complained that “many people wanted to go to the village … filming without our authorization, without our understanding, and then they took the material” without sharing it.
To prevent a repeat, the Matis began writing their own history in 2017.
Living ‘with two worlds’
Since arriving in San Martin, Dame Betxun Matis, 27, has not put down his camera.
He took part in producing the “Matis tattoo festival” documentary that won the jury prize at the Kurumin indigenous cinema festival in 2021.
The film demonstrates the tradition of marking the face, a practice abandoned by young people who faced discrimination in cities.
Kata Matis convinced the community to resume the tradition and filmed as some 90 young people underwent the ritual.
On the Matis’ last night in San Martin, hundreds of locals crammed the maloca to watch the Tikunas’ short films.
After much laughter, applause and shared masato, Kata Matis reflected on the place of indigenous people in modern nation states.
“We don’t live between two worlds, we live with two worlds,” he said.
International
Chilean mayor criticized for justifying human rights violations
March 29 |
A wave of criticisms today raise the statements of Chilean Mayor Evelyn Matthei, who justified the human rights violations committed by the Police during the social outburst of 2019.
Matthei, mayor of the commune of Providencia and member of the right-wing Independent Democratic Union party, endorsed the actions of the Carabineros with the argument that they supposedly “had no way to defend themselves.”
These violations “cannot be relativized, they cannot be justified”, declared this Wednesday the government spokeswoman and former deputy Camila Vallejo.
The protests against the neoliberal model initiated in October 2019 were violently repressed by police officers and members of the Armed Forces, resulting in nearly 30 deaths, thousands of injured and 460 people with eye damage resulting from the firing of pellets or tear gas bombs.
Vallejo called on the municipal official not to take political advantage in an electoral context or to use the issue of the need to reinforce security in the country to relativize the support to citizens’ prerogatives.
Meanwhile, the mayor of the commune of Recoleta, Daniel Jadue, denounced on his Twitter account that Matthei always ends up justifying human rights violations and recalled her links with the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
Questioned on the subject, the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, described the mayor’s statements as a serious mistake.
“There are people who believe that in order to protect their political project they have to ignore human rights,” said Tohá.
For the political analyst Marta Lagos, the justification of the municipal official for the violations committed during the social outbreak is brutal.
International
Mexico already has inmates for migrant shelter fire
March 29 |
Le ministre mexicain des affaires étrangères, Marcelo Ebrard, a annoncé aujourd’hui qu’il y avait déjà des détenus dans l’affaire de l’incendie d’un centre d’accueil pour migrants qui a tué 38 étrangers et en a blessé 29 autres gravement.
Selon le secrétaire, qui s’est rendu à Ciudad de Juárez pour inspecter les installations de l’Institut national de la migration (INM), où les occupants ont mis le feu à des matelas en signe de protestation, les personnes directement responsables ont été présentées au bureau du procureur local.
M. Ebrard a déclaré sur les réseaux sociaux que, d’après ce que nous avons appris de ces agences, les personnes directement responsables de ces événements comparaîtront devant le bureau du procureur général.
Il a indiqué que des contacts avaient été établis avec la Colombie, l’Équateur, le Guatemala, le Honduras, le Salvador et le Venezuela afin de les informer de la tragédie de Ciudad Juárez et de soutenir leurs consulats dans l’aide apportée aux victimes et aux familles touchées.
Je leur ai fait part de la profonde indignation du Mexique face à ce qui s’est passé et de la volonté du gouvernement et du peuple de faire la lumière sur les faits et de punir les responsables”, a-t-il ajouté.
Il a indiqué que le ministère des affaires étrangères avait demandé au ministère de l’intérieur et à l’INM les informations nécessaires à partager avec les pays frères susmentionnés, et a ajouté que ce qui s’était passé était d’une grande tristesse.
Le président Andrés Manuel López Obrador est revenu sur la question mercredi lors de sa conférence de presse matinale, au cours de laquelle il a expliqué que les enquêtes étaient entre les mains du bureau du procureur général.
Il a reproché à la presse de droite de tirer la sonnette d’alarme sans connaître tous les détails de l’incident et d’ignorer les enquêtes professionnelles qui sont menées sur ce malheureux incident.
Le président a insisté sur le fait qu’au cœur de la question se trouve le désespoir des gens de quitter leur pays parce que les causes de l’exode ne sont pas traitées comme elles devraient l’être, ce qui, bien qu’il ait quelque peu diminué, se poursuit dans de nombreux pays de la région.
Il a indiqué que la secrétaire à la sécurité, Icela Rodríguez, serait chargée de faire rapport et que les innocents ne seraient pas blâmés, a-t-il assuré.
International
Ecuadorian indigenous people demand Lasso’s removal from office
March 29 |
Des membres de la Confédération des nationalités indigènes de l’Équateur (Conaie) se sont mobilisés mardi devant le siège de la Cour constitutionnelle dans la ville de Quito pour demander la destitution du président Guillermo Lasso.
Selon Leonidas Iza, président de la Conaie, “quelle que soit l’issue (destitution ou mort croisée), la décision est entre les mains de la Cour constitutionnelle. Un processus a déjà été lancé par l’Assemblée nationale, (les magistrats constitutionnels) doivent en prendre connaissance, le recevoir et aller de l’avant”.
“Nous avons demandé à la Cour constitutionnelle de garantir, par des moyens constitutionnels, légaux et démocratiques, le déroulement du procès en destitution”, a déclaré M. Iza, et sur la “menace” de dissolution de l’Assemblée nationale, il a estimé que “la Constitution ordonne à la Cour constitutionnelle d’effectuer le contrôle. Nous espérons qu’elle ne s’attend pas à ce que le peuple descende dans la rue”.
Après avoir traversé le siège de la Cour constitutionnelle, le contingent indigène s’est rendu à l’Assemblée nationale pour présenter le projet de loi sur l’eau.
En arrivant au Parlement équatorien pour présenter le projet de loi, Iza a profité de l’occasion pour préciser la volonté de la Conaie concernant le processus de destitution du président Guillermo Lasso et les rumeurs d’une éventuelle dissolution de l’organe législatif.
Le contingent de la Conaie a été reçu au siège du Parlement par son président, Virgilio Saquicela, et par les législateurs Mireya Pazmiño, Dina Farinango et Fernando Cabascango.
Après la remise du projet de loi sur l’eau par Iza, Mme Pazmiño a souligné que “ce projet ne sauvera pas seulement la vie des paysans et des indigènes, mais celle de tous les Équatoriens”.
Pour sa part, M. Saquicela a souligné que le projet de loi présenté “sera traité dans le cadre légal et constitutionnel, débattu en commission, en séance plénière et approuvé pour le bénéfice direct des Équatoriens”. Les sources d’eau de cette précieuse ressource appartiennent à tout le monde”.
Chilean mayor criticized for justifying human rights violations
Mexico already has inmates for migrant shelter fire
Ecuadorian indigenous people demand Lasso’s removal from office
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Media join “I stay home” and “Together we will move forward El Salvador”
Panama has suspended international flights for another month
-
International4 days agoU.S. senators’ request for sanctions against Bolivia rejected
-
International3 days agoAt least 16 dead in landslide in Alausí, Ecuador
-
International5 days agoColombian Attorney General’s Office withdraws arrest warrants against guerrillas with political status
-
International3 days agoProsecutor’s Office reveals details of corruption scheme in Venezuela
-
International3 days agoCuba reports that 75.92 % of the electoral roll voted in parliamentary elections
-
International2 days agoWater, one of the resources most impacted by climate change in Latin America
-
International2 days agoMexican authorities report 39 dead in fire at immigration center
-
International15 hours agoMexico already has inmates for migrant shelter fire
-
Central America2 days agoU.S. deports MS-13 gang member wanted in El Salvador for three homicides
-
International15 hours agoEcuadorian indigenous people demand Lasso’s removal from office
-
International15 hours agoChilean mayor criticized for justifying human rights violations