On February 7, the day of Sepé Tiaraju is celebrated, Guarani leader murdered by Spanish and Portuguese invaders, in the year 1756.
Sepé lived and led his people during the period when the Sete Povos das Missões became centers of reference as an alternative to the model of colonization imposed by the world powers of Spain, Portugal, France and England.
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The Sete Povos das Missões had economic, political and organizational structures that differed from those of the conquerors, as they prioritized community relations and not greed and cowardice.
Although there are numerous criticisms of the Jesuits, for their methods of attracting, convincing and religious impositions on indigenous peoples, there are historical records that in the Seven Peoples of the Missions, the common use of Mother Earth, as well as good ways of cultivating, prevailed. her and protect her.
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Greed and disputes for Mother Earth, for her goods and domains, made the colonizers invade, destroy and kill her children without mercy, without any scruples, because what interested them was the annihilation of the original peoples and their ways. of being and living.
It was in this environment of fights against the invaders that Sepé Tiaraju stood out as a leader, commander, warrior. He and thousands of men and women put their bodies and spirits fully into defense of Mother Earth, her sons, daughters and all of nature.
The battles against the armies of Spain and Portugal were dramatic and, which had never been experienced before, they became daily, that is, they injured and shed the blood of indigenous bodies, killing them, promoting despair and pain through imprisonment, enslavement , torture and the spread of contagious diseases.
Decades and decades passed and peace never came. The assassins did not give up, despite all the disposition, organization and resistance of the peoples and the attempts of the indigenous leaders to negotiate with the foreign governments that attacked them.
Until, in one of the truce agreements, there was betrayal and an ambush, in Sanga da Bica, where the intent was consummated and Sepé Tiaraju was murdered. Afterwards, they slaughtered their warriors in Coxilha do Caiboaté, located today in the municipality of São Gabriel, Rio Grande do Sul.
After the cowardly massacre, Sepé Tiaraju’s body disappeared, but the Mbya Guarani claim that he was raised to the top of the Heavens, where he became a Beam of Light radiating the paths of the survivors of his people, who constantly walk in search of Earth. No Evil.
Yesterday’s Sepé Tiaraju becomes a presence in today’s fights. So say the Mbya Guarani spiritual leaders when, every year, they remember and celebrate their memory and that of their male and female warriors.
The bloody past of centuries resembles today’s genocide, when lands are invaded and devastated by militiamen, miners, ranchers, land grabbers and wealth speculators. These subjects of death are being protected and covered up by unscrupulous politicians and rulers.
Sepé Tiaraju, today, is present in the suffering and martyrdom of the Yanomami people, who have their women raped, their husbands murdered or enslaved, whose babies, children and young people are malnourished, starving or contaminated by mercury and introduced diseases and disseminated within the territory.
Sepé is present in land repossessions, in struggles for demarcations, in roadside camps – highway margins – without housing, without land, without food, without water, without assistance and without hope, other than that transmitted by religions and ancestries.
Sepé Tiaraju is there in Rondônia, where mining is incessant, where insane farmers set fire to and destroy the forests; he is in Pará, where the Munduruku are raped; it is in Amazonas and Acre, where the Kanamari and Madija are brutalized; it is in Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, where the Xokleng, Kaingang, Charrua and Mbya were deterritorialized; it is in Paraná, where the Avá Guarani are treated with contempt and racism; it is in Pernambuco, in Bahia, in Ceará, in Minas Gerais, where violence against young people does not cease; it is in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul among the Terena, Kaiowá, Myky, Xavante, Nambikwara who lose territories day after day; it is in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Tocantins where the devastation of the forests compromises the future of the people.
Sepé Tiaraju is in cosmovisions, he is in the martyrs Galdino Pataxó, Xicão Xukuru, Maninha Xukuru-Kariri, Marçal de Souza Tupã’i, Ângelo Kretã, Paulino Paulinho Guajajara, Oziel Terena and so many leaders who lost their lives in defense of their rights fundamental.
Sepé is involved in the struggles for the demarcation and guarantee of land and against the time frame, in the search for the consolidation of differentiated health and education policies. It is in the fight against racism, hunger, systemic violence against indigenous people, quilombolas, residents, street dwellers and poor small farmers.
Sepé Tiaraju is in indigenous peoples in urban contexts, in mobilizations and movements for justice, freedom, equality and peace. He is in the struggles of women that are articulated in common guidelines of resistance to sexism, homophobia, abuse and all forms of prejudice and discrimination.
Sepé lives in the indigenous religiosities, in the Encantados de Luz, in the Forces of Nature and, along with the other warriors who fell in defense of Mother Earth and Life, illuminates the paths of resistance to systemic abuse, disrespect and imposed genocide, which it seems incessant.
Sepé Tiaraju, Present!
* Roberto Liebgott is coordinator of the Missionary Indigenous Council – CIMI – for the Southern Region of Brazil
** This is an opinion article. The author’s view does not necessarily express the editorial line of the newspaper Brazil in fact.
Source: BdF Rio Grande do Sul
Editing: Marcelo Ferreira
