Eletronic Indians

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Electronic IndiansAn Indigenous Communication Network

I. Indians and the Globalization of the Media

For the Brazilian media, the 90s was a period marked by major transformations and globalization.Capital cities began receiving news from around the world on cable TV. Direct TV expanded thisservice throughout the entire country, while satellite dishes grew by the millions in rural areas.

However, we must ask ourselves if this expansion will lead to a more comprehensive communications

system, which can be used by all of societys sectors to express themselves and contribute to thebuilding of a multiethnic nation. Will biases be reconsidered as a result of this communicationsacceleration? Will there be more respect for cultural differences, ideally brought closer togetherthrough information manipulated by diverse segments of society?

The technological revolution, which multiplied the number of television stations, seemed to point to anexpansion of the job market, to greater outsourcing and independent productions, and to the use of different formats, languages and voices. Instead, the same cartels monopolized the new media andoutsourcing was conducted through a closed circuit. We saw programs being repeated, one after theother, in all sorts of channels.

A few channels allowing new ideas and concepts to be expressed were opened. But they fell wellbelow the original expectations of independent producers (1 1). Militants of the Black Movementrecently met with Brazils president to ask that they be given their own television network. And howabout the Indians? What place will they occupy in this scenario? For now, they only appear in themedia as objects of peoples fantasies.

Brazilian Indians form a tiny fraction of the countrys population (0.02%) . But in compensation, theyhave an enormous symbolic importance, perpetuated through their image as good savages andjungle Indians. With no congressional representation of their own and unassisted by a bankrupt and

1 1 - In Brazil, commercial cable TV has grown in geometrical progression. The Roberto Marinho Foundationtogether with other large corporations created Canal Futura, a cable educational TV station. The local stations of Rede Brasil, Brazils national network of educational TV stations that retransmit national programming, wereallowed to go on the air two hours a day with their own locally produced programs. This gave them the status of mixed stations. A large number of these stations belong to foundations, universities and other state andmunicipal organs. It was in this framework that the innovative Programa de Indio (The Indian Program) wascreated in 1996 by the Centro de Trabalho Indigenista (Indian Work Center). The program, aimed at a non-Indian audience, involved the participation of Indians from the state of Mato Grosso and used the facilities of the TV station of the Federal University of Mato Grosso. We will comment on this experience later on.


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corrupt federal organ, Indians must resort to media events to make their voices heard and their basicrights met, especially those pertaining to territory. Some of these media events include the taking of hostages, the occupation of ranches and public buildings, and declarations of wars that never take placeor hurt anyone. Over the past decades, these were the tools used by the Indians to conquer (or regain)their territory.

The interest Brazilian Indians have in exchanging experiences among themselves becomes morerelevant when we take into consideration the fact that the different Indian nations live isolated fromeach other. There are close to 210 ethnic groups that speak 180 different languages a culturaldiversity that is multiplied by the wide variety of experiences created when there is contact. Indiansgain a clear notion of the status society has reserved for them when they learn of the existence of othertribes and when they realize that all of them face the same difficulties in coexisting with the whiteman. They learn from each other new ways to interact with society. They create their own alternatives,which they first try out among themselves and then share with other tribes experiencing the samesituation. These are new forms of representation that involve the rebuilding of their self-image and aprocess of selecting cultural traits that each tribe conducts in accordance to its own experience and

interest in contacting other groups.Large pan-Indian meetings and the media may be the Indians last resource to make society aware of their plight and force the government to assume its responsibility. But they also reproduce andperpetuate societys cliches and biases. Journalists like politicians, bureaucrats and most citizensremain deaf to the voice of the Indians. They not only feel they know all there is to know aboutIndians, but also what is best for them.

Thus, most documentaries and TV reports concerning Indians continue reflecting societys fascinationwith their traditional wisdom and knowledge, and lament their disappearance. No longer isolated,Brazilian Indians have made demands of our society that are rarely dealt with in the documents thatclaim to address the so-called Indian problem. Indians are seen as something akin to an endangeredspecies and the impact of cultural globalization is dealt with simplistically as losses suffered bydominated cultures.

It is within the context of these immense difficulties to make themselves heard that the challenge toparticipate in the global communications network assumes its importance. It is an importance that fromour point of view is inversely proportional to the Indians condition as a minority, or as a group of more than 100 ethnic groups with rare contact opportunities, from their point of view.

Indians need their own space in the media in order achieve greater visibility in Brazilian society and tohave their voices heard by a media that prefers to talk about Indians rather than letting them speak forthemselves. Once this media space is occupied, Indians would be able correct the distorted visionwhich most of society has of them.

II. The media and the twilight of Indian Nations

The primitivism or fragility of indigenous people is the bias most widely disseminated by theBrazilian media. It is a bias that justifies paternalistic concerns about their future. This concern, wasmanifested by sociologist Hlio Jaguaribe, who in a 1995 article said: There wont be any Indians left


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in Brazil by the end of the next century( 22). This ethnocentric version of the history of ourrelationship with indigenous societies is not corroborated by the history experienced by thousands of different ethnic groups around the world. According to Jaguaribe, the future of non-Western societiesdepends on the incorporation - either on their own or through diffusion of elements of our culture,in detriment of theirs.

Jaguaribe shares the commonly-held notion that the Indians use of electronic equipment TV sets,video cameras, etc is the foremost symbol of the destruction of his culture and loss of his identity.Electronic Indians actually form a small minority, since access to this kind of technology is difficultfor most indigenous communities. Modern technology placed at the disposal of Indians be it in theform of manufactured goods such as tools, fire arms, etc, or chemical products like pharmaceuticals have never represented in themselves a step towards what Jaguaribe described as the civilized stage.The same can be said about the Indians dependence on industrialized goods, which do not necessarilyrepresent an improvement in their living conditions.

Indians do not refuse to be Brazilian citizens. They are aware of the techniques and knowledge thatwill help them improve their living conditions in accordance to cultural standards and forms of socialorganization they will never abandon. Yet, it is customary to deny Indians the right to modernity, forthat would brand them as acculturated. The fact is that the methods they use to select and absorbexternal cultural traits do not necessarily result in a loss of identity. Our civilization neither causestheirs to fade away, nor does it represent an exclusive choice.

The future Brazil has reserved for its Indians is one of marginality, the result of the plundering of thenatural resources of their lands. They are constantly suffering from the growing number interventionsby private initiative and government, without being given the necessary information. Most BrazilianIndians are unable to fully understand what drives our society to interfere in their lives. They have noaccess to the decision-making centers where such interventions are decided. They continue beingdeprived of the information they need to take a stance vis-a-vis such actions.

The twilight, which is presented as an inexorable fatality in the historical process (3 3), is really awell-planned strategy of forced assimilation. This is reflected in the attitudes of Brazils population asa whole - which preserves its biases towards Indians - and of the government, that manipulates thesebiases to carry out a series of interventions in an authoritarian way.

From a non-Indian point of view, to be or not to be an Indian is a matter of appearance. The image of the Indians as disseminated by the media is a simplistic gradient that goes from naked Indians walkingin the rain forest to those who wear shorts; and from those who already use flip-flops and wristwatchesto those who are completely assimilated and no longer correspond to the idealized image of the Indian

2 The sociologists article (The Anthropological Garden of Neoliths - Folha de So Paulo Sept.1994) is one of many divulged by major newspapers that highlight this ethnocentric vision of the Indians future. Also seearticles entitled Indians: The Twilight of a Race Manchete, July 8,1989 and Brazilian Indians: The Twilightof a People Estado de So Paulo, Dec.8, 1996.

3 According to Jaguaribe, The historical destiny of the Brazilian Indian is to cease being an Indian and becomea Brazilian citizen- Folha de So Paulo, Sept.1994.


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in the jungle. Indians do not recognize themselves in these images that are always conjured up by thewhite man, who continues describing the Indians primitive and authentic traits and insisting on thefragility of their cultures.

While our society moves forward and expands itself, Indian society is expected to satisfy our longingfor tradition by remaining still and immutable. But the Indians have shown us that their traditions aredynamic intellectual systems capable of change. Unfortunately, however, the media does not normallyshow us the processes in which Indians reflect on the changes taking place around them. As long asthey are forced to keep quiet, their voices overpowered by those of people who consider themselvesspecialists, the dynamics of their culture will remain unknown. All that is left are images. Wheneverappearances form the only means of communication between two different worlds, images and theirmanipulation will always have an important strategic value.

Over the past two decades, local and national movements have been helping indigenous peoples investin their future, especially through new forms of organization that strengthen their presence in thecountry. Through increased contacts, Indians have the opportunity to invigorate their differences, notonly in relation to non-Indians but among themselves as well. Their transfiguration into the genericIndian category never took place, nor is it underway. Today, we can no longer state that thepreservation of ethnic traits depends on isolation. On the contrary, the experience of Indians in Braziland in the rest of the world shows us that cultural differences and their affirmation are a form of interaction economic, political or cultural that indigenous peoples want to maintain with oursociety. In this context, the adoption and use of communication instruments by electronic Indiansdoes not always correspond to Helio Jaguaribes prognosis: the disappearance of their cultures.

III. Communication Between Indigenous Peoples and the Affirmation of TheirDifferences

Studies conducted in several continents show that the use of technology to guarantee communicationbetween cultures strengthens the persistence of cultural differences. Australia and Canada, twocountries that culturally and economically massacred their minorities, recently included in theirconstitutions the right of these minorities to have their own communications networks. Everythingindicates that these countries finally realized that their ethnic minorities would not disappear and thattheir survival was not a threat to national sovereignty.

These are concerns that still persist in Brazil. Some local experiences illustrate how interchange,comparison and confrontation have allowed indigenous communities to view their cultural traits in adifferent light and to value them in a new context.

It is precisely the debate on these differences that offers these groups the chance to demand their ownspace. The structure of their cultures depends on the permanent recreation of differences that theyassume as a form of political affirmation. These differences stand a lot to gain by having access to themeans of communication.

This is the real meaning behind the term electronic Indian: the capacity to use globalcommunications instruments to overturn existing, commonly held biases. In the relationship between


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worlds that only communicate through appearances, images and their manipulation have a strategicvalue.

The Video in the Villages Project

Over the past 10 years, the Indian Work Centers video project has been helping Indians become awareof their image. It has placed information and technology at the disposal of some indigenouscommunities to encourage them to reconstruct self-representations and create a self-image. It alsoencourages them to exchange audio-visual material made available though a network of video libraries,which the project installed in several villages. At the same time, the project trained indigenousdocumentarists and opened space in the media to disseminate an image of Indians that was more suitedto their own interests. These successful experiments have confirmed that the use of audio-visualinstruments strengthens cultural identities. A project of this nature creates production dynamics inseveral levels.

The Impact of Videos in VillagesBy installing a video monitor in a village, the Project is trying to bring about a technologicalrevolution. It is a short cut that directly connects traditional forms of oral culture and history to audio-visual systems, bypassing the written word. By circumventing this individualized form of recordingand transmitting knowledge, traditional forms of obtaining new information, such as collectivedebates, are strengthened. By recording and seeing their performances be they rituals or politicalnegotiations in the village compound indigenous communities select, build and strengthen thecultural manifestations they wish to preserve for future generations and which best set them apart fromthe non-Indians.

Leaders of many communities agreed to use video because they saw it as a way to see their stance of cultural resistance materialize in images and sound. The audio-visual, a universally understoodlanguage, is the only way these leaders can accomplish this, since most of them do not dominate thewritten word, a technique normally controlled by the younger generations. The most importantfunction of video in these cases has been to record rituals, dances, songs, paintings and tribaladornments.

By using video to come face-to-face with their own experiences in a wide variety of situations, thesecommunities acquire new parameters to understand their status. Video also helps them discover newways of relating to Brazilian society and government. This dual mechanism used to manipulate theirown image and compare themselves to others involves a creative process that leads to a reflection of

their reality and to an expansion of their horizons. It culminates in a revision of their self-image.

The Use of Documentaries to Disseminate Experience

The Projects team that over the past 10 years accompanied the Indians image -recording andmanipulation processes, produced a series of documentaries in three different categories:


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. video process: case-by-case accounts of the encounters that several tribes have had with their ownimage and of their reflection on their self-representation;

. video denunciation: documentaries that deal with the conflicts that are emblematic of the BrazilianIndians current situation;

. institutional videos: these depict alternative development projects proposed by some communities,illustrating the control they have over their current contact situation and the transformations they areexperiencing.

Eighteen documentaries in five languages compose the series (4 4). They mirror the impact the Projecthas had in indigenous communities and, at the same time, serve as an instrument to obtain the fundsneeded to keep it alive. The Project is funded by international donations and through the sale of thevideos.

Unlike many conventional Indian theme productions that resort to a record/edit/distribute filmingschedule, we avoid focusing on the final product. Instead, we first establish a dialogue with thecommunities to be documented. Between the films making and distribution, we invest in severalintermediary stages that guarantee that these communities will become direct participants in theproject. And it is because of this participation that we obtain that something extra the proximity andpresence of these individuals that react to the cameras provocation and reflect, with us, on their future.

The 1996 production of Segredos da mata (Secrets of the Forest) gave us the chance to conduct anew experience with the Waipi Indians. It is a narration and theatrical representation of encounterswith the cannibalistic monsters that inhabit the tribes cosmology and day-to-day life. It was a newexperience in dealing with Indian myths, where the Indians participation is limited to narration andwhere the content is depicted from the researchers perspective. For the Waipi as well as for othercommunities, video productions of fictional events represent a new approach to traditional themes.

Each new work becomes part of a group, which when seen as a whole gains greater significance. Theseries has an innovative element that sets the productions apart from other documentaries on BrazilianIndians: only the Indian speaks there is no external commentary and he is always present, alwayscreating something new in his relationship with the camera. In this road toward self-representation,unique ethnographic films are being created by the Indians themselves.

4 Distribution of this series has been growing steadily. Having been exhibited in many international festivals andwinning several awards, the films were purchased by foreign TV stations (France, Denmark, Norway, Australia,Canada, the United States, Belgium and China). The publication of academic texts describing the project andfrequent participation in seminars has also encouraged universities, educational secretariats, cultural centers andmuseums to acquire the series. The Indian Work Center distributes copies of this series in Brazil and in the restof Latin America, where they are widely exhibited. We made a Spanish-language version for distribution toindigenous groups in the rest of the continent. Televiso Ibero Americana (Iberian-American Television)transmitted four programs so that all local educational TV networks could record and retransmit them.


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A Window to the Outside World

The documentary makers being trained by the Project and who have already been working for sometime are now editing their first works documentaries to be made accessible to a larger public.Ethnographic films produced by the Indians themselves are unique products unknown to the Brazilian

media despite the fact that they have received international recognition in film festivals.

The village-to-village training of indigenous video makers, which the Project began several years ago,has borne positive results for those who managed to finish their documentaries. These were initiallyconceived as descriptive narratives for internal consumption. This is the case of Kasiripin Waipi(Jane Moraita: Our Feasts) and of Caimi Waiasse from the Xavante village of Pimentel Barbosa(One Must be Curious). Their works demonstrate their dedication to registering themes of importance to their communities.

The Project, together with the University of Mato Grosso TV an educational TV station in the city of Cuiab created the Indian Program in 1995/96. It was a unique experience that showed those Indians,

taking part in the program, a path to be followed and a right to be demanded. The idea was to have theprogram serve as a school of journalism and production for Indians of several ethnic groups in MatoGrosso state. Besides portraying characters, the Indians created, produced and presented a TV programabout themselves.

This team was involved in the entire process from production to exhibition. The four programs wereshown in Mato Grosso and on national network by TVE the Rio de Janeiro educational TV station.But the Indians themselves, who feel enormous pride when they recognize their leaders, form theIndian Programs most enthusiastic public. As a result of the discussions with this group, we realizedthat it felt it was too small and technically unprepared for the project. It also felt that more and bettertraining would give them more confidence when dealing with the stations personnel. Discussions like

these helped us trace our work plans for the coming years.

IV. Indian Voices: Perspectives

Workshops and Videoletters

To a large degree, the Projects main challenge at the moment is to train a larger number of documentarists who will form a nationwide network of collaborators for a future Indian Program.Individuals must first be trained before occupying positions.

We decided to professionalize the oldest group of students in regional improvement and productionworkshops where they could learn how to explain their culture to people from the same village andfrom far away cities. The coverage of a ceremonial ritual served as the workshop, and from amethodological point of view this approach has proved to be extremely productive and useful.

Challenge and motivation surround this endeavor, for the community has a lot of expectations in termsof results. It also presents a wide variety of situations to be filmed. It is an ideal situation because it


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allows us to work together to improve techniques and develop content so that image and content areclosely related, and objectivize each other.

So-called videoletters are produced and circulated in these regional workshops to keep collaboratorsin contact with each other and encourage them to use audio-visual language. The network will meetperiodically to collectively develop production projects in order to achieve its objective: theresumption of the Indian program on educational TV.

Video and School

The Project is also researching and indicating the best ways to use video in schools equipped by theremote education project. The use of video can transform the content of programs that are usuallyalienating and that normally encourage cultural domination, despite the efforts of many educators.

Differentiated curriculums currently a joint effort by the Ministry of Education, universities andNGOs could benefit the mechanisms of reflection, which the use of video encourages. As we havealready seen, the dynamics involved in the use of video in villages brings together several dimensionsof cultural production and of traditional knowledge. The inclusion of video in school programs adaptedto the reality of each group could help prepare local videomakers to record under the supervision of village elders - all that which valorizes the heritage of their communities.

But the school should not be used only to produce audiovisuals that valorize a local culture. It shouldalso be a place where TV programs transmitted from outside the communities are discussed andanalyzed. In this respect, new educational guidelines should insist on the need to selectively compareand criticize information aired by the media. The introduction of indigenous communities in a universeof new knowledge could improve their interaction with the outside world. But it could also lead topassivity. Unlike books and pamphlets that are read individually, a video that is discussed in a publicsquare or in a school will give the community more information than it actually contains.

We must research and divulge experiences in which schools and video are able to interact in order toaugment the potentiality of both. As a tradition-disseminating vehicle, video can be of enormous helpin motivating children to focus their interest on their own people and heritage. Schools and theopportunities for reflection and analysis that they offer could help indigenous filmmakers go beyondrecording the rituals and political meetings of their people. They should be encouraged to conduct acomprehensive research of their culture, and produce more consistent and elaborate documentaries fortheir schools, communities and the public in general.

Counseling and Public Policies

Over the past few years, the number of satellite dishes and TV sets in Indian villages has been growingprogressively. TV Escola (School via TV), the Education Ministrys remote education megaproject isequipping thousands of rural schools with antennas, TV sets and videocassette players and has similarplans for 500 schools in indigenous communities. The challenge this new technological scenario posesis to potentiate the use of this equipment in a positive fashion. Public policies in this area could benefitfrom proposals based on the Projects accumulated experience.


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We have submitted a proposal to the ministrys Department of Indigenous Schools to research titlesthat are best suited for an indigenous-oriented curriculum. We have also suggested video libraries inschools and a wider and more systematic distribution of films dealing with Indian themes. Togetherwith the School via TV Department we are preparing the scripts for a series on Indians and basiceducation. In the event the Project produces this series, the idea is to transform it into an inter-ethnicworkshop in which Indians can explain who they are to millions of young Brazilians.

Documents

Eletronic Indians