Apoio a Kunangue Aty Guasu

We are Guarani and Kaiowá indigenous women. We are the second largest indigenous population in Brazil, located in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. For centuries we have been denied our land rights, our rights to healthcare, and our rights to survival. We are exposed to poisonous pesticides from large scale agriculture, and suffer attacks from gunmen. Since 2006, Guarani & Kaiowá women have sought to gather together and strengthen their resistance through the Kuñangue Aty Guasu - The Great Assembly of Guarani & Kaiowá Women. 

The Kuñangue Aty Guasu is led by Guarani & Kaiowá women and Ñandesys (female shamans) and is an important space for the exchange of information, for denouncing human rights violations, and developing proposals for action. It is a key site for Guarani & Kaiowá political mobilisation, as well as a locus of spiritual empowerment. The current circumstances surrounding COVID-19 have made it especially important that this space continues to exist online. 

The Guarani and Kaiowá communities are digitally isolated, and the transition to an online format proposes a series of logistical and infrastructural challenges. With your support, we can acquire the technical support and communications infrastructure we need to make this meeting possible. We are creating five transmission points in different indigenous villages, spread throughout our territory, so as to guarantee that our Ñandesys and Guarani and Kaiowá women can participate remotely. In order to be possible, each transmission point will need a stable internet connection, recording equipment, computers, and a technical assistant, among other logistic requirements. 

Our Ñandesys and female elders are the guardians of our knowledge, our culture, and the history of Guarani and Kaoiwá resistance. For the first time our Kuñangue Aty Guasu will be digitised, and translated from Guarani to Portuguese to English, and transmitted around the world. In this way, we can ensure that our ancestral knowledge and our history of resistance can be maintained in our community, and enter in dialogue with communities worldwide. We invite you to join us and support us as we create this historic moment of resistance, strengthening the voices of Guarani and Kaiowá women.