The social impacts of illegal mining on indigenous communities

The presence of illegal mining in the Yanomami Territory causes multiple impacts on the social life of the indigenous people. The humanitarian crisis is more visible in the delicate state of health, especially of children and the elderly, as seen in recent weeks, but it also reaches cultural dimensions of this people. Last week, the Agência Brasil report visited the Casa de Saúde Indígena (Casai) in Boa Vista a few times, and was also in the Yanomami Territory itself , at the Pole Base of Surucucu, between Thursday (9) and Friday (10 ). During the visits, he spoke with indigenous people and specialists to better understand how they perceive these impacts.   

“Dirty water to eat, spoils the fish. Very weak children. You drink dirty water and your stomach hurts a lot”, says Enenexi Yanomami, who tries to describe the situation experienced by her relatives in the indigenous land. Agência Brasil found the 21-year-old indigenous man at the entrance to Casai. According to him, he spent more than 60 days in the capital to accompany sick family members. The return to the territory, which depends on air transport, had no forecast. “There are more hours of flight to Surucucu”.  

For him, the presence of mining is what has caused the damage that affects his people. “Now, we have to take out mining. When you take it off, don’t worry. There is a lot of mining there, [it has to be] prohibited”. 

Mother of two children hospitalized at Casai, Louvânia Yanomami has lost count of how long she has been away from her homeland. With no forecast for discharge, she received a warning from doctors that, if she returned, she could put her younger son’s life at risk. The child, who is between 1 and 2 years old, has severe malnutrition and swelling of the abdomen. 

 

“I’m very tired, there are a lot of people here [Casai], you can tell. It’s a difficult situation. I won’t let him because he’s mine [son] and I can’t take him because he’s going to die”, she reports, anguished, with the help of an interpreter. In January, Casai housed more than 700 people, but the place has a capacity for just over 200. There was a reduction in this overcrowding, but the space still registers the presence of more than 500 people, according to last week’s balance of the Center of Emergency Operations (COE) of the federal government. 

Arokona Yanomama, who also complains about the environmental damage brought about by the illegal exploitation of minerals , was interviewed by the reporter at Casai. He cites how the heavy machinery of dredgers and tractors chases away game and pollutes the land. “Bad smell. Die hunting, die everything. The land is not good, it is very ugly. Smoke machine came in, so it smelled really bad. They contaminated land, they contaminated water, they polluted fish”, he reports. Now, to hunt a wild pig, he has to walk at least 50 kilometers to get away from the most deteriorated area.  

Lost reference

“The mining is going to attack the basic food chain of the Yanomami. They are a people of territorial mobility, they live by hunting, fishing, gathering and agriculture. There is nothing sadder, then, than a Yanomami hunter not having game to feed his family,” explains anthropologist Maria Auxiliadora Lima de Carvalho. She has been working with the Yanomami people in Roraima for over 20 years.

“The Yanomami people have never needed food donations to survive. This whole vulnerability scenario was provoked. The biggest evil is still the presence of prospectors, prospectors”, says the special secretary for Indigenous Health of the Ministry of Health, Weibe Tapeba, who visited the territory last Thursday (9).

Even some of the Yanomami’s most sacred rituals are being drastically disrupted by prospecting activity and widespread lack of health care within the territory. This is the case with funeral ceremonies. The Yanomami do not bury their dead. They cremate the bodies of their deceased family members and then grind the bones to powder. The process can take weeks and often includes a final phase in which the community performs an act of eating banana porridge with the ashes of the deceased. 

 

“The Yanomami insist on funeral rituals, but there are so many dead that there isn’t even time to mourn them”, says the anthropologist. These ceremonies may also include the presence of visitors from different villages and, in these cases, the hosts usually offer a game animal, which has become scarce in the regions affected by mining. 

The entry of alcohol into the Yanomami culture, which is not recent but has been getting worse, is another destabilizing factor. Kaxiri, a non-alcoholic and very traditional drink made from boiled cassava, was fermented by the indigenous people to have a high alcohol content, under the influence of miners, even during the first invasion of the territory, in the late 1980s. “This has increased cases of violence against women and violence in general”, explains Maria Auxiliadora. It also interfered with agricultural production, causing indigenous people to increase manioc plantations to produce the drink, expanding the cycle of alcohol consumption in the villages. 

Harassed youth

The anthropologist also observes another type of community breakdown caused by gold mining . In the first major outbreak of illegal mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, starting in the second half of the 1980s, most of the indigenous population was made up of adults. Currently, however, the base of the age pyramid has become much more numerous, with a strong presence of adolescents and young people. However, most schools within the territory have been shut down by the state government. 

“Public policies are not enough for these young people. And they are young, they want adventures. As a result, mining greatly harassed these young people, with access to weapons, which they appreciate very much, and other objects”, adds the expert.

She cites the case of sexual harassment by miners against indigenous women , which she observed during field work in the community, where she stayed for several years, between 2002 and 2009. According to the anthropologist, the accusations that are being revealed now, with the explosion of mining in the territory, are very likely. 

“With mining all the time and more and more, it is quite possible that they seduced people. They are very fond of soaps, hair oil, food. So, this exchange for sexual intercourse, whether consensual or not, is unequal, because there are very clear positions of power, ”she argues.

The federal government is investigating the case of 30 Yanomami girls who are said to be pregnant by miners working illegally in the territory.

Hope

 

Amidst the chaos experienced by the Yanomami, hope for the future involves the reactivation of schools in the region, which were closed for more than a decade.  

“There was a school here, I still remember it”, says Ivo Yanomami, tuxaua (chief) in the community of Xirimifik, with more than 200 people, mostly children and teenagers. The village is about a 15-minute walk from the Surucucu track.

The demand for the resumption of indigenous schools within the territory will be taken to the federal government, assured the secretary of Indigenous Health, Weibe Tapeba, during a visit he made to the region.

*Flávia Peixoto and Ana Graziela Aguiar, TV Brasil reporters, collaborated .