Synopsis of Project Proposal for "A History of the Krenak"
Historically, literature and documentaries on the Krenak, an indigenous
peoples from the Minas Gerais Valley in Brazil have been made by the
non-indigenous, resulting in misconceptions and incorrect
interpretations. This is something that has been bringing many problems
to our community. The interest for us who are Krenak is to show what
really is happening today and the process that has caused it in the
last 200 years.
The purpose of the documentary video we would like
to make, “A History of the Krenak” is to tell the true story about how
we were almost exterminated. It will be filmed in the Krenak
Reservation in the municipality of Respendor, Minas Gerais. Shirley
Adilson Silva Krenak who is the first indigenous person in the state of
Minas Gerais to receive a university degree, will be the project
coordinator.
The video will include the oral testimonies of elders
(a practice, in common use among us for passing on information) who
have survived the wars against the Krenak. How do the Krenak live
today? What is the life of our people like after so many years of
massacres (up to contemporary times)? And of our continued struggle for
the return of our most sacred territory, the Sete Saloes which tourists
desecrate by deliberately destroying carved ancestral drawings,
vandalism, barbecues, mountain climbing and dirt bike racing inside the
ceremonial area.
We hope that as a result of this documentary, the
general public can have a better understanding of indigenous culture in
Minas Gerais and in Brazil. Through this video we hope for more allies
that are interested in the indigenous struggle.
We hope that as a
consequence of this first documentary by an indigenous community that
other videos can be made of other indigenous groups in Brazil who also
have had strong genocidal contacts with the colonizer but who have
survived