Indigenous land rights in Brazil and the women defending them: an encounter with activist Valdelice Veron

Abstract

During a recent trip to Georgetown University, the anthropologist and Indigenous rights activist Valdelice Veron spoke out about the persecution of her community, the Indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá, in Brazil. Before the conversation began, Valdelice stood and invited students, faculty, and staff to stand with her. Using sound and ceremony, she opened the space and called forth a different quality of presence from those in attendance – the kind required for the testimony of violence she would share. Gathered around a table, we listened intently as Valdelice described an attack that took place in 2003, a year after her community had once again been driven off their land. On 11 January, her father, Marcos Veron, led a group of about 100 Guarani-Kaiowá in a retomada (or reclaiming) of their land, which has been occupied by a cattle-ranching operation since the 1960s (Branford 2003; Earthsight 2020). In the early hours of the next morning, 30–40 armed men hired by the rancher descended upon their camp (Earthsight 2020). Valdelice recounted how these invaders dragged them from their tents and pulled them along the ground, beating them with the butts of their rifles – how they bound them with ropes, took them away in trucks, and tortured them. She described how they raped the women and girls and forced the men of their families to watch. She told us how, as they beat her father to death, he was crying out, ‘Land, life, justice, and the demarcation of land’ – the pillars that have guided Guarani-Kaiowá political activism for decades. Although her grief was palpable, her voice was powerful and steady as she described the painful, crucible moments that shaped her advocacy and resistance. Valdelice spoke of the ongoing violence she and her community face as they work to defend Indigenous land rights and seek justice. She described how, after the initial dispossession of their land, her father had insisted on her education, which he saw as critical to the community’s ability to fight back. Now on the precipice of completing her PhD, she spoke of the power of words to counter oppression and the responsibility we all bear to raise our voices. Around the world, environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs), many of whom are Indigenous peoples, face similar risks and forms of violence. It is estimated that 200 EHRDs were murdered in 2021 alone, with an overwhelming majority of deadly attacks occurring in Latin American countries (Hines 2022). According to data from Global Witness, murders of defenders in the Amazon accounted for 78 per cent of attacks across