JØRN MEETS GUARANI INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN BRAZIL.

Some days ago Ana Maria (AWE representative, Brazil) and I attended a regular class in Guarani language and culture in the federal university in Porto Alegre. The teacher was Vhera Poty, a young, 22 years old man, Guarani, who taken a high school exam and wanted to study film at the university. See picture.

The next day we visited him in the area of the tribe about 100 km. from the city Porto Alegre, where he lived.

They lived in small houses of bricks or stone or wood– about 180 people- 32 families.
There was a school at a central place with the forms 1-4 and two teachers –one white (Portuguese speaking) living outside and one indigenous teacher speaking Guarani. See picture of the class. The new school buildings and the salaries to the teachers and the school food were provided by the local municipality, as well as a separate house which served as a health clinic.

The area was characterized by people being active with something – some women were weaving baskets producing things which could be sold in the market places of Porto Alegre; the men were building several houses in wood, and they fetched all the material in the forest which surrounded the area. It was evident that they knew the methods and techniques of indigenous house building.

The children attended the school, which also gave them a warm meal at the middle of the day.
Older children, form 5-9, were collected by school busses – with the name eschola – and taken to a nearby regular nearby school.

Around in the village there were strolling freely around groups of chicken, dogs, ducks, pigs, and other animals.

They grew the crops they needed for their existence – bananas, sugar cane, maize, different vegetables.

The money they needed they got from making crafts and weaving baskets, but they did not work outside, with a few exceptions.

They were also like the rest of the indigenous peoples supported by a state Foundation for Indigenous people, in which indigenous people themselves are represented, and which administer social programmes for indigenous peoples.

To sum up: It was a big experience to see the natural harmony between humans, free animals and the nature (fields, the forest), of course, existing within a context of poverty measured by normal Western standards. But the way of life and the social philosophy in the area I visited were clearly determined by age-old traditions and administered by a 7 persons - council from the area, which had to meet the next day under the chairmanship of the young 22 –years old and educated young man, Verah.

Jørn