Subject: DAVI YANOMAMI RECEIVES UN GLOBAL 500 AWARD
From: GEO2:CEDI
Date: 23-02-89, 16:31:22
To: SURVIVAL-PROJEC
Cc: TRIBAL-SURVIVAL ENVIRONMENT

DAVI YANOMAMI RECEIVES UN GLOBAL 500 AWARD, AS THE AMAZON BECOMES CENTER OF 
ATTENTION

As  the world was barely recovering from the shock of Chico Mendes brutal 
assassination  in  late  December of last year, it became known in the 
Brazilian press that the United Nations Environmental Program  had  awarded  
its  annual "Global  500" prize - given in recongnition  of work done on 
behalf of environmental conservation & to the Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa, 
of the Demini Indian Area.

Like  his predecessor Chico Mendes, the first Brazilian to receive this  
recognition  in  1987,  Davi  has dedicated his life'work to fighting  for  
the  protection  of  the  Amazon rainforest and its native  inhabitants,  the 
Yanomami being the last large indigenous group of the Americas to have been 
recently contacted.

Like  Chico  Mendes, Davi has pitted the strength of his conviction and  
belief  against  the powerful forces of capitalist development which have 
wreaked destruction on Amazonia for generations - in the Yanomami  area,  
these  forces  are represented by more than 40,000 gold-panners  who  since  
last  year, have lanched the most massive invasion  of  this  indigenous  
territory in history, with numerous deaths from disease and violent conflicts, 
pollution of the rivers, and  irreversible  damage  to  the environment.  Like 
Chico Mendes, also,  Davi  is  a target in an openly-declared war, but neither 
of them  have struggled alone and have had the support of thousands of 
individuals  and  organizations  locally, nationally, and worldwide concerned 
with the future of the rainforest and its native peoples.

Although  the  United  Nations  Environmental Program had selected Davi,   and 
had  communicated  its  decision  to  the  Brazilian government,  in April, 
1988, the government chose not to publicize it,  nor even to inform Davi, who 
is a functionary of FUNAI, until shortly  before  the  official ceremony of 
presentation.  As if to compound  this  blatant  manipulation,  FUNAI 
officially dismissed Davi  from  his  position  as  head  of  the Demini 
Indian Post, a position  which  he  has  held  since 1985.  No amount of 
official excuses  or  confessions  of  error  could  hide  the  fact of the 
government's discontent with Davi's world recognition and honor.

Major  Brazilian  newspaper  gave  ample  coverage  to  the formal ceremony  
of  presentation,  held  in Brasilia on February 1st, as they  did  to Davi's 
demotion by FUNAI, which was later retracted. Davi Kopenawa accepted the prize 
with the following speech:

"With this prize from the United Nations, I have become stronger. By helping 
me, the whites give me courage to face my fight. I am an Indian happier than 
many others. My relatives are many but few speak Portuguese. My tribe, the 
Yanomami, we are backwards, we are primitive, everyone there walks around 
naked. There are only 10 or 20 who speak Portuguese. Many are afraid of 
fighting against the gold-prospectors, the ranchers, the whites. I am not,
I am not afraid. Because I was born to defend my people.

"I wasn't born to stay in the city.  I was brought up in the woods, I have 
never left my place, where my parents were born and were raised.  I don't act 
as the whites who go from here to there, go to Roraima, making a lot of noise, 
a lot of confusion there, causing problems.  The Yanomami don't do that; the 
Yanomami act with respect.  They may not have studied in schools, but they 
act properly. 

"FUNAI for me is already dead.  Only the name of FUNAI has stayed. At first 
FUNAI had the means to help the Indian; today, it's on the side of the 
gold-prospectors.  FUNAI has forgotten the Indians because of gold.  Many of 
my relatives don't know I have won the prize.  We are very spread apart...  
there is no communication.They will only know when I get back home.  But, many 
other relatives are worried about me.  The shamans who work to protect me are 
very worried.  Because I am the only one to defend the Yanomami people.

"So, shamans are working to prevent what happened to Chico Mendes from 
happening to me. There are warriors also who are on my side, watching. If a 
gold-panner attempts to kill me in thewoods, in the village, they won't get 
away. They may get away in the city, because the Indians don't go there. But 
they won't get away in the villages. They would do well to know that.

"Now, we are quiet. But if prospectors, if whites mess with us, it will be to 
kill and die. Then Indians will die, whites will die, everyone will die. They 
have to respect the Indians. We respect the whites. I know you, I speak your 
language, I am not against the gold-panners. I am against the gold-panning 
because it leaves holes, it ruins the rivers and streams. The Yanomami do
not do this, cut up the land, cut down trees, burn the forest. We are not 
enemies of nature. We are friends of nature because we live there in the 
woods. The forest is what takes care of our health. There, it's not hot 
because the trees are high. Here (Brasilia), there are no high trees, so you 
have to keep buying fans. Omami (God) gave us the land for us to live on it, 
not to sell it. The whites sell it, and then go away. The Indian doesn't do 
that.

"I'm not satisfied because the whites gave me this prize. I am and I'm not. 
Because my relatives are dying. Before, this didn't happen. The Yanomami 
didn't know that the whites would do us wrong. Now, the fish are suffering, 
the rivers are being finished off. The whites are also suffering there. 
Indians and whites, poor whites and rich whites. Because sickness fears 
nothing, it kills anyone, whether rich, fierce, or big.

"The Brazilian government will have to help stop this. If it lets this little 
piece of Brazil be invaded, there won't be another equal to this Yanomami 
area. My land is the last to be invaded, it's the last invasion. After the 
Indian has suffered, the white man will also suffer. Then, war will come 
amongst you: Venezuelans and Brazilians will fight, you'll see. My work is for 
the future. I don't think only of the present.

"I knew that the prospectors were coming to my area, I knew it all. I knew 
that FUNAI would let the prospectors invade. The Indians asked to take the 
prospectors out, and FUNAI took no steps. The white man says that Brazil will 
get better, but it's
 getting worse. The whites are also suffering, the poor. Aren't they 
suffering? They have no land to plant, no land to live on. The government 
wants everything for itself. It shouldn't be this way. The government should 
give to the poor also. Do they think that when they die, they are going to be 
able to take everything with them? No, they will have to leave it behind. This 
is what I think, this is may work. that's all I wanted to say."

(published in "O Estado de Sao Paulo", 14/2/89, p.2).


The  recognition of Davi's work in defense of Yanomami culture and the  
environment  represents one of the most significant events in the  current  
national  and  internationl  movement against Amazon rainforest  destruction.  
The Yanomami case has long served as an example  of  how  the  concerns of 
native people and environmental issues  and  social  justice  are  
inextricably linked, as well as being  recognized  as  the  most  serious and 
urgent case of human rights abuses in the world.

We  wish  to  thank the hundreds of supporters from the Rainforest Action  
Network  for their actions concerning the repeal of decree 250.   This 
demonstration of solidarity is extremely important, as is  the continued 
insistence that the government create a Yanomami Park  in a continuous area.  
Letters of support for Davi Yanomami, whose  life  is  in  greater danger now 
more than ever before, are also  urgently  needed.   Letters should be sent to 
President Jose Sarney.

Robin Wright/CEDI.


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 * Origin: After Catalyst BBS, What's Left? Vancouver, BC (Opus 1:153/108)
SEEN-BY: 107/701 153/108 221/0 71 162 333 520/701 633/366 

"Captured on-line from UNITEX BBS. Sysops James Waldron & dorothy Nicklus.
 201-795-0733.   March, 89.