Rio de Janeiro organizes cultural week to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day

Society remains in remarkable ignorance about indigenous peoples and this lack of knowledge arouses serious prejudice and creates stereotyped images of indigenous peoples, primarily due to misinformation or unqualified information disseminated by the media, projecting a very poor image of indigenous peoples, as they were the ones from the past or of indigenous who do not exist, while we do have real indigenous peoples. This evaluation was made by Culture and Territory Superintendent Alexandre Pimentel, from Rio de Janeiro Department for Culture.

He explains that, this year, in order to celebrate the Indigenous Peoples' Day on April 19, the city will promote events in order to "raise their visibility to civil society, in a more general way. It is a way to create a positive agenda and touch on prejudice issues."

One event is Indigenous Cinema Pajé (shamans) Show Films that will screen films made by and about indigenous peoples. Another event is a Big Indigenous Culture Market with art and crafts shows, cultural presentations, storytelling, debates with Indigenous leaders.

Alexandre Pimentel noted that indigenous peoples have always been in Rio de Janeiro since well before the colonial period and they remain there, "although they are not visible to most people." For that reason, when planning these events, it is necessary to attract the audience to raise their awareness of the importance, richness, originality, and diversity of indigenous culture.

For Carlos Tukano, coordinator of Adeia Maracanã Indigenous Association (AIAM), the Indigenous Cultural Week "will show the importance of indigenous peoples in Brazil and in Rio de Janeiro". This year, groups from other regions of the country will attend the event, including the Pataxó from Bahia; the Fulni-ô from Pernambuco; the Kayapó from Pará; and the Puri from Rio de Janeiro, in addition to indigenous peoples from Maranhão.

According to 2010 Population Census conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the indigenous population in Rio de Janeiro state stands at around 15,000 inhabitants. In Rio de Janeiro capital, according to Tukano, there are about 7,000 indigenous people.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta