Indigenous people are dying at an alarming rate throughout the Xingu, though the picture is far from uniform and not all is doom and gloom.
Many communities have locked themselves down very effectively, not allowing any opportunity for the virus to penetrate their isolation. But that has come at great cost. Unable to access the small government payments many have become accustomed to – pensions and the bolsa familia paid to them while their children are in school – families and entire communities have suddenly been left without many of the daily necessities they have grown to depend on, including some basic food provisions.
At the same time, many indigenous people who live mainly in the towns outside the reserves while attending secondary schools and universities, or because they are employed in positions which require them to live in the town, have returned to the villages, increasing the population and putting pressure on the ability of the community to feed itself.
We have been providing support by financing the purchase of essential supplies – food, medicines, tools and equipment – to help them increase their capacity to grow food and catch fish, and so that everyone can be fed properly. Working with their own associations we have established safe lines of supply which can sanitise the supplies and transport them to the communities in a safe way which minimises the risk of infection being introduced.
In other parts of the country, government medical professionals have unintentionally become virus superspreaders as they visit remote communities to dispense medical services, so the communities in the Xingu are limiting access even to nurses and doctors, leaving them with reduced access to medical treatment and medication.
But still the infection takes hold in some cases.
Young men in particular are sometimes exposed to the kind of false information which is widespread in Brazil, telling them that the threat from the virus is small and people should not take it seriously. A few have returned to their villages carrying the infection, where it spreads rapidly because of the physical closeness of their way of life. As a result people are dying, often elders and chiefs. They take with them a store of knowledge and spiritual sensitivity which has been carried down through the generations, leaving the culture scarred and their resilience undermined.
When it gets into a village the infection can be devastating. The Yawalapití, one of the tribes of the Upper Xingu’s convergent culture, have been badly affected; most of the community have contracted Covid-19, and Chief Aritana is in intensive care in a hospital in Goiânia, over nine hours away. His brother Mataryua died of the disease, along with four other chiefs from the Xingu Indigenous Territory (TIX), which occupies the southern part of the Xingu basin. To date, nearly eighty cases have been confirmed in the TIX alone, and seven people have died.
Throughout the Xingu there are cases in indigenous communities; as of the 23rd July 1,322 cases have been confirmed and at least fifteen people have died, though this does not include those who died in hospitals or towns outside of the indigenous territories. The eastern area – the indigenous territories of Kayapó, Badjonkore, Las Casas and Menkragnotí – is the worst affected with 831 confirmed cases and at least eight deaths. Latest reports from there are that the number of serious infections is less than was initiailly feared, though it is still relatively early in the progress of the infection. Nearby, the Xicrin of the Cateté indigenous territory, which adjoins the Xingu river basin, have seen 90 confirmed infections and four deaths.
Medical equipment and supplies which we have helped to provide for the worst-affected villages, including oxygen concentrator machines for respiratory support, are proving effective in preventing the disease becoming life-threatening. This should dramatically reduce the number of deaths in the future and reduce the suffering of those who catch the disease. Isolation measures are increasingly effective as they become better organised and the dangers are better understood by all the members of the communities, which should minimise the number of people falling victim to Covid-19. But the disease is still widespread in Brazil and shows no sign of being under control in rural areas, so we expect that the communities will need our support for many months.
We are a small organisation and we cannot provide for all of the many needs which the Coronavirus pandemic is driving, but we know that the grants we are providing are filling urgent needs. Our longstanding personal experience means that we are confident in our indigenous partner organisations, and we have been able to provide vital information to facilitate some of the larger international organisations we work with, including Amazon Watch and the Amazon Emergency Fund, in placing their support where it will be most effective.
This time has been harrowing for us. When people we work with and have known, sometimes for decades, die suddenly, it is hard to accept. When people who we respect for the work they do with their communities break down as they speak to us, under the stress of having many family members falling ill, lying in intensive care and even dying, it can feel that we are not doing enough. But they tell us that the support we provide is effective, and we know that by enabling the communities to isolate themselves, and by providing medical support, we are saving lives.
The support of the amazing people who contribute financially to help the indigenous people of the Xingu is vital; there are no words which can adequately express our gratitude, so – inadequately – Thank You All.
We are especially grateful for the incredible effort by Rainforest Concern who are so effectively running a fundraising campaign on our behalf.
The survival of indigenous communities has been shown time and time again to be the best means of protecting the remaining Amazon rainforest and we are priviledged to be part of a worlwide effort to protect them and to help them through this most difficult time.
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