he
Kayapo’ of Moikarako have also seen the images of the Sept. 11th,
2001, terrorism and war. In the First Aid station, before the only battery-run TV in
the village, the Indios stood perplexed and scared. “Will the war come here, too?” they were asking.
“Is it already in your country? Tell
your relatives to come here with us if they are in danger; we’ll make a house
for them, too.” Mote, the old
chief, told me to write a letter against the war and to send it to the Big
Chiefs.
In those days we were all involved in the preparations for the traditional feast of Tarak. At the end of the celebrations, Mote came over to our house for a cup of coffee. I reminded him of the letter he had requested. Immediately he began dictating, in the Kayapo’ language, his thoughts and those of the whole Moikarako village: “I do not want war! My whole community absolutely does not want war!”
We want to still have our feast, and we want to continue to eat well and sleep in peace, to paint ourselves and cut our hair according to our ancient ways. We want mothers to still paint their children with bright red ‘urucum’ paste and shiny black ‘erreg’ resin, and we want to pierce our ears for pearl earrings according to our ways.
We want to continue to stay well, in peace and celebrating our feasts…
We want mothers to continue to spread perfumed resin on the heads of their boys and girls. We want to continue to use our wax-and-resin feather head-dresses to celebrate our feasts in song and dance. We want to take our baths in the river still, to catch the electric eel which, rolled up in banana leaves with flour of mandioca, we roast in stone ovens and eat during the feast.
We want to continue to relish palm-hearts, nuts and all the fruits of the forest.
We want to still hunt wild boars and tapir; and our young warriors to continue to fish in the river. We still want to make smooth bows and prepare arrows, to work in the fields, split wood for the fire…
We want to continue to stay well, in peace and celebrating our feasts…”
And Chief Mote added, “Now dispatch what I have told you, write it with the machine and send it to the Big Chiefs, because we want to stay well and continue our celebrations.”
So, I’m sending you this message of Chief Mote and of the Kayapo, because the Indios of the Upper Xingu, in the Amazon, too, feel that terrorism and war goes against and threatens their way of life.
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)