The
Meeting of
Brazilian and
Canadian
Indigenous
Youth.
June 2007
Center for Studies in Food Security
Ryerson University
Edited by Rita Simone Liberato
The project Indigenous Youth
Exploring Identities through Food
Security aims to:
• Identify how food and food security impacts the
cultural identities of Indigenous youth:
– in different geographic locations in the Americas
– with distinct (and yet, similar) colonization histories
– living in different social, political, economic, and
natural environments.
• Bring together the needs and struggles of two
different Indigenous communities through the
important issue of food -- in its material and
symbolic manifestations.
• Assist in carrying out a preliminary investigation of
how issues of food security manifest themselves in
relation to youth in these two communities.
Background
• Developed as a collaboration between the Centre for Studies in
Food Security at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, and partners
in Araçuaí, Brazil (Fevale University and Fênix Research Institute).
• Designed to leverage an opportunity provided by the six-year (20042010) training and education project Building Capacity in Food
Security in Brazil, supported by the University Partnership in
Cooperation and Development of the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA-UPCD project).
• Intends to investigate two communities as parallel case studies
which will illuminate and inform each other through the generation
of questions, issues and approaches that can be transposed to the
different sites.
Canadian community: Mi’kmaq community of Elsipogtog First Nation
in New Brunswick
Brazilian community: Pataxo and Pankararu community of Brazil.
Village Cinta Vermelha-Jundiba
Village Cinta Vermelha Jundiba
• 716 Km from Belo
Horizonte, the Capital of
the State of Minas Gerais
• Five families
• A small school
• Subsistence agriculture
• Small production of crafts
Toê Pankararu
Yamany Pataxó
Itxai Pataxó
Teacher
Chief
Teacher
“I think that it is important
to know the Canadian
Indigenous peoples, their
structures and food.
Their lives are full of rituals,
but society has invaded and
destroyed these traditions,
with prejudice against
Indigenous peoples.
Those who are different
from the dominant group
do not have a place
anymore”.
Geralda Soares
(Brazilian Researcher and Educator)
Food and Identity
“Village Aldeia Cinta Vermelha
Jundiba is rich in Cultural
Identity. Its diet is maniocbased and its drinks and
medicinal herbs help them
maintain full lives. Everything
is so beautiful. Perhaps with
the invasion of large
agricultural projects , this
diversity of millenary
knowledge will be destroyed”.
Geralda Soares
(Brazilian Researcher and Educator)
National Aboriginal Day
• During National Aboriginal
Day, the Indigenous guests
from Brazil walked and
sang together with their
relatives in Canada.
• They easily related to the
traditional food, crafts and
dances of the Aboriginal
Nations at the celebration.
• For the first time, they
drank the sacred strawberry
juice offered by Daniel
Mi’kmaq to the chief Toê
Pankararu.
Mi'kmaq youth Katrina Clair and Duma Dean Simon at a day of
support for Aboriginal peoples' rights in Toronto. Food security is only
one aspect of well being and holistic health for Aboriginal peoples.
Everything is connected, including land reclamations and treaty rights.
Meeting at Ryerson University
With Cecília Rocha, Cyndy Baskin, Judy New, Wayne Roberts and RAs of the CSFS
“Today [at the National
Aboriginal Day Celebration] is an
important day for us, because we
met our relatives and we felt at
home. We felt that the Indigenous
fight is worldwide, with the same
goal. Despite the fact that we do
not speak English, we made
friends.
Probably because of our cultural
ties, or the energy of Mother
Earth and the Spirit, we could
communicate.”
(Toê Pankararu)
“I have a dream to develop the Permaculture
project in our Village. We don’t want to destroy
nature, but want to work to reconstruct it. Our
region is very arid and has been depreciated by
human action. We don’t have water so we need
to build dams and collect rainwater to start our
project.
We were very enthusiastic when Professor
Cyndy Baskin went to our Village in 2006.
When we got the invitation to come to Canada,
we were very happy. Our excitement to meet
our Indigenous relatives here was high”.
(Itxai Pataxó has a technical degree in Agriculture
Techniques and is studying at the Federal
University of Minas Gerais, in the Bachelor Program
for Indigenous Educators)
•
“I feel that being a woman is important
because the Indigenous women in Brazil
have been leaders in the development
movement, especially around the fight for
land.
•
We want our Village to have our face. We
are educating our children reinforcing the
value of respecting each other and our
traditions. We want to live in community.
•
Language is very important in this process
of reconstruction because in the past our
elders were prohibited to speak in the
Pataxó Language. For that reason, we are
developing the Pataxó Dictionary. We
have already collected 1.500 words.
Through teaching our children and elders
we are also learning a lot.
(Yamany Pataxó has a College degree in
Indigenous Education and is enrolled at the
Bachelor Program for Indigenous Education
at the Federal University of Minas Gerais)
“Crafts are important
to our traditions and
subsistence livelihood.
We sell our crafts to
some visitors in our
Village, at events in the
capital, and during
some events to which
we are invited.”
(Yamany Pataxó)
“Two years ago, when this small
group of Indigenous people
arrived in Cinta Vermelha
Jundiba, others here said that
they came to this dry land to die.
Instead, they have opened a
window of opportunity to
everyone. Peasants in this region
usually go to São Paulo or Mato
Grosso to work on sugar farms.
Now, with the Permaculture
project, they are showing that
when we engage in adequate
reforestation, the land will
respond with abundance.”
(Geralda Soraes - Brazilian Researcher and Educator)
Visiting Indigenous Agencies in
Toronto
- Council Fire;
- Anishnawbe Health;
Pow Wow
• Traditionally greetings to
the Creator are made for
everything that Mother
Earth gives to Her sons
and daughters.
• Visitors from around the
world participated in this
celebration. Music, crafts
and food were featured in
this event.
Visit to Six Nations
“I realized that the Indigenous
peoples in Canada have in
their culture the same
meaning for the moon:
Our Grandmother.”
(Yamany Pataxó – Six Nations)
Six Nations
Seminar: Indigenous Youth Exploring
Identities through Food Security
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Cyndy Baskin
Cecília Rocha,
Bonnie Guarisco
Toê Pankararu
Itxai Pataxó
Yamany Pataxó
Katrina Clair
Duma Dean Simon
Elisa Levy
Ann Pohl
Geralda Soares
Bernadete Nóbrega
Rita Simone Liberato
(Ryerson University)
From left to right, Bonnie Guarisco (Anishnabe), Katrina Clair (Mi'kmaq),
Antonio Cesar (Itxai Pataxó), Sinoeme (Yamany Pataxó), Duma Dean
(Mi'kmaq) and (in front) Ivanildo (Toe Pankararu) at the June workshop in
Toronto.
“ Despite being from different geographical locations and Indigenous Nations,
there are many similarities amongst us in terms of world views, values,
spiritualities and a history of colonization.”
Paulo Freire
“Schools in Brazil do not teach
Indigenous History. During the 1980s, I
went to live with the Maxacali people.
During that period, we had a military
dictatorship in my country-- a harsh
regime with censorship, violence, and
murders.
We found our inspiration in Paulo
Freire. We were a clandestine group
reading in Spanish, because his books
were prohibited in the Brazilian
Universities. He is very important to my
education.”
(Geralda Soares)
“Paulo Freire was very important to my
education too. I believe that Paulo Freire
is very relevant in the region where I’m
working because we have a high level of
illiteracy, including functional
illiteracy."
(Ann Poole)
Education
“Education is very
important to us. We
believe that our children
don’t start education at a
particular time. Right after
birth, they bring
knowledge and begin the
learning process.
We do not separate them
from the adults. They learn
alongside us each day.”
(Toê Pankararu)
“Our population is
around 3,000 people,
with good and bad
things. The good
things are the presence
of our elders and our
traditions. The bad are
the drugs in our
community.”
(Duma Dean – Mi’kmaq)
“When we say ‘youth, identity and food’
what comes to mind?”
• “There is a connection with family.
Food has the power to bring people
together.”
(Elisa Levy)
• “Our tradition is to sit in a circle
around the food. This is our family
time”.
(Itxai)
• “We share the food and eat together.”
(Yamany)
• “Food is important to our spiritual
traditions."
(Katrina)
From left to right, : Dr. Cyndy Baskin, Katrina Clair and Duma Dean Simon.
Pizza is not a Mi'kmaq traditional food, but seafood such as lobster and clams,
fish such as salmon and smelts, fiddleheads, strawberries and blueberries are.
Food and Identity
“We have some events around
food, such as the water
celebration in October, to bless
nature and the rainy season. At
this time we go to a special house
(cabana) where each family
prepares their food. After that, we
sing and dance with the maraca.
We are planning to reconstruct
the forest around our Village with
special trees from our culture.
Doing this we can teach our
children about our rituals. We
moved to this place two years ago
and we do not have easy access to
our traditional foods.”
(Itxai Pataxó)
“What would you like to know about youth, identity and
food that could be of benefit to your community?”
Permaculture
- an inventive agricultural project based on
our own traditions.
-main idea: to make the cultured habitat
sustainable.
- goal: to create a safe environment for
humans, plants, animals, soils, and waters.
- based on the observation of natural
processes and uses ecological principles to
increase diversity and productivity of local
human ecosystems.
Time to go back home
Katrina Clair and Duma Dean Simon have much to tell their families, friends
and community leadership about food security, their time spent with
Indigenous peoples from Brazil and their visits with many Aboriginal peoples in
Toronto. They hope to start a youth community garden in the future at
Elsipogtog First Nation where they live.
Optimism
“Our identity is the most important
thing that we have. We love who we
are. We enjoy painting our faces and
bathing together in the river. For us,
this is happiness. In our Village
everything is shared, our life is shared.
We do not live for material things and
do not strive to accumulate things. We
miss the river we once had, and the
forest and natural resources that are
now gone. We fight for a comfortable
life because if we do not have money
to buy food it is difficult. This is the
reason why we want to have a farm in
our Village.”
(Toê Pankararu)
References
• Baskin,C. & Rocha,C.(2007). Project Indigenous Youth
Exploring Identities through Food Security. Toronto,
Canada.
• Liberato, R. (2007). Relatorio: Encontro de Indígenas
Brasileiros e Canadenses [Report: Meeting of Brazilian and
Canadian Indigenous]. Toronto, Canada.
• Photography by Alessandro Shinoda, Dr. Cyndy Baskin and
the Centre for Studies in Food Security.