Eliane é escritora indígena, professora, mãe, avó, 54 anos, remanescente Potiguara. É Conselheira do Inbrapi, (Instituto Indígena de Propriedade Intelectual) e Coordenadora da Rede de Escritores Indígenas na Internet e o Grumin/Rede de Comunicação Indígena.

Eliane foi indicada para o Projeto internacional Mil Mulheres Para o Prêmio Nobel da Paz.É uma das 52 brasileiras indicadas.

Formada em Letras (Português-Literatura), licenciada em Educação pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, participou de vários seminários sobre Direitos Indígenas na Onu, organizações governamentais e Ongs nacionais e internacionais.

Eliane Potiguara foi nomeada uma das “Dez Mulheres do Ano de 1988”, pelo Conselho das Mulheres do Brasil, por ter criado a primeira organização de mulheres indígenas no país: Grumin (Grupo Mulher-Educação Indígena), e por ter trabalhado pela Educação e integração da mulher indígena no processo social, político e econômico no país e por ter trabalhado na elaboração da Constituição Brasileira. Com a bolsa que conquistou da ASHOKA em 1989 (Empreendedores Sociais) mais seu salário de professora e o apoio de Betinho/IBASE e os recursos do Programa de Combate ao Racismo, (o mesmo que apoiava Nelson Mandela ), ela pôde prosseguir sua luta, além de sustentar e cuidar de seus três filhos, hoje adultos.

         Em 1990, foi a primeira mulher indígena a conseguir uma PETIÇÃO no 47º. Congresso dos Índios Norte-Americanos, no Novo México, para ser apresentada às Nações Unidas. Neste Congresso, havia mais de 1500 índios.  Por isso, participou durante anos, da elaboração da ”Declaração Universal dos Direitos Indígenas”, na ONU, Genebra, por essa razão recebeu em 96 , o título “Cidadania Internacional”, concedido pela filosofia Iraniana “Baha´i”, que trabalha pela implantação da Paz Mundial.

         Defensora dos Direitos Humanos, além de vários Encontros, e criadora do primeiro Jornal Indígena e Boletins conscientizadores e cartilha de alfabetização indígena no método Paulo Freire com apoio da Unesco, organizou em Nova Iguaçu/RJ, em 91 outro Encontro inédito e histórico, onde participaram mais de 200 mulheres indígenas de várias regiões, tendo como convidados especiais a cantora Baby Consuelo e vários líderes indígenas internacionais. Organizou vários cursos referentes à Saúde e Diretos reprodutivos das mulheres indígenas e foi consultora de outros encontros sobre o tema.

         Em 92 foi Co-Fundadora/Pensadora do Comitê Inter-Tribal 500 Anos (kari-oka), por ocasião da Conferência Mundial da ONU sobre Meio-Ambiente, junto com Marcos Terena, Idjarruri Karajá e muitos outros líderes do país, além de ter participado de dezenas de Assembléias indígenas em todo o país.

         Discutiu a questão dos Direitos Indígenas em vários fóruns nacionais, e internacionais, governamentais e não governamentais, diversas diretrizes, estratégias de ordem político-econômica, inclusive no fórum sobre o Plano Piloto para a Amazônia, em Luxemburgo/1999.

         No final de 92, por seu espírito de luta, traduzido em seu livro “A Terra é a Mãe do Índio”, foi premiada pelo PEN CLUB da Inglaterra, no mesmo momento em que Caco Barcelos (“Rota 66”) e ela estavam sendo citados na lista dos “Marcados para Morrer”, anunciados no Jornal Nacional da Rede Globo de Televisão, para todo o Brasil, por terem denunciado esquemas duvidosos e violação dos direitos humanos e indígenas.

         Em 95, na China, no Tribunal das Histórias não contadas e Direitos Humanos das Mulheres/Conferência da ONU, Eliane Potiguara narrou a história de sua família que emigrou das terras paraibanas nos anos 20 por ação violenta dos neo-colonizadores e as conseqüências físicas e morais desta violência à  dignidade histórica de seu bisavô, avós e descendentes. Contou também o terror físico, moral e psicológico pelo qual passou ao buscar a verdade, além de sofrer abuso sexual, violência psicológica e humilhação por ser levada pela polícia federal, por estar defendendo os povos indígenas, seus parentes, do racismo e exploração. Seu nome foi jogado na lama nos jornais do Estado da Paraíba. Tudo isso à frente de suas três crianças na época.

          Eliane no último governo foi Conselheira da Fundação Palmares/Minc, é FELLOW da organização internacional ASHOKA, dirigente do Grumin e membro do Women´s Writes World. Eliane participou de 56 fóruns internacionais e para mais de 100 nacionais culminando na Conferência Mundial contra o Racismo na África do Sul, em 2001 e outro fórum sobre Povos Indígenas em Paris, 2004.

Eliane é do Comitê Consultivo do Projeto Mulher_ 500 anos atrás dos panos que culminou no Dicionário Mulheres do Brasil.

É autora de seu mais recente livro ‘Metade cara, metade máscara, Global, pela GLOBAL EDITORA que  aborda a questão indígena no Brasil.

         Rio de Janeiro, 20 DE JULHO DE 2005 

VISITE MEU FOTOLOG, SUBSÍDIOS PARA TÉCNICOS E ESCOLAS:

http://fotolog.terra.com.br/elianepotiguara

Foto: Maria de Lourdes de Souza (avó materna de Eliane Potiguara)

Foto: Daniel Munduruku e Eliane Potiguara

Foto: Minha Família (Avó, Mãe, Filhos e Netos)

 

Note: This profile was prepared when Eliane Lima Dos Santos(Eliane Potiguara) was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 1992.

The New Idea

Eliane has organized the Group of Indigenous Women Educators, known as GRUMIN. So far, there are twenty-six regional coordinators implementing a basic program of education and consciousness-raising among women in hundreds of villages. The women are given an eighty-page booklet that in simple, clear terms and pictures explains the history of indigenous people in Brazil, and their contribution to the country's history. For most of the women, it is the first time they have been made aware of events occurring outside their communities and given an opportunity to reflect about their own situation as women and native Brazilians. In the process, the older women are encouraged to share their knowledge of the indigenous group's history and traditions. Craft workshops are organized to keep local customs alive.

The idea behind the group is to strengthen self-esteem and foment awareness among Indian women who are the bearers of tradition, heads of families, and pillars of their communities, but who have been discriminated against both as native Brazilians and as women. They are learning that they are citizens with the right to a good education, decent medical care, and a reasonable amount of land on which to engage in their traditional subsistence activities of farming, hunting, or fishing. And by learning how to operate within the Brazilian political system, these women will be more capable of ensuring those rights for their families.

"The result of this educational process is that women realize that they are proud of and want to preserve their cultural traditions and values," says Eliane. "They also realize that their survival as a people and as native Brazilians is threatened by the lack of economic alternatives." Eliane works with the women and the other members of the community to find income-generating activities rooted in their traditions and based on their skills. For instance, Eliane's ancestral village in the northeast of Brazil is bringing back traditional fishing--an activity that allowed her great-grandmother to add protein to the family diet and other goods to the household through the then prevailing barter system. Through the years this activity declined: the wood used in making the traditional canoes was gone, and competition from professional fisherman became intense. Today Eliane is revitalizing this small industry with better boats and techniques so that once again it will enrich both the local diet and economy.

The Problem

Before the Portuguese explorers arrived in 1500, there were an estimated three to five million Indians in Brazil. The indigenous women enjoyed important decision-making power within their communities, but that changed when the colonizers forced many Indians to work, under slave-like conditions, on plantations. Traditional social structures and family roles suffered badly even where groups of Indians survived.

Today only 220,000 Indians survive in Brazil. Since the beginning of the century, they have been treated in a patronizing, often corrupt fashion by a series of government agencies. Official assistance programs, rather than encouraging indigenous groups to continue their traditional economic activities, such as farming, hunting, and fishing, handed out food and medicine, creating a destructive dependence that continues today. For decades, the Indians were legally considered wards of the state, unable to make decisions for themselves. The new Brazilian constitution, written in 1988, did away with that tutelage, ensured Indians unprecedented rights, and required the demarcation of all Indian lands. "But to date few of these provisions have been implemented, and even fewer Indian groups are organized enough to take advantage of these newly gained rights," notes Eliane.

The Strategy

Eliane also wants to multiply the number of regional education groups participating in the GRUMIN project, as well as increase circulation of the GRUMIN newspaper and educational videos. Seminars, as well as regional and international conferences are being planned to bring women from a number of indigenous groups together to share experiences.

An ambitious, long-term goal is to create a center for professional training and leadership formation for indigenous women in the centrally located Mato Grosso or Goias states. There, women would participate in three month-long courses to develop leadership and management skills. In addition they would learn to further develop their handicrafts--weaving, ceramics, basketry, painting, and sewing--to create an additional source of family income. Upon returning to their communities, these women would be in charge of offering a similar course to their neighbors. "It is our hope to stimulate cultural and political consciousness-raising among indigenous women nationwide as well as to encourage them to develop variants of traditional products (analogous to, for example, Navajo jewelry) that will enjoy great value in the market," Eliane explains.

The Person

Eliane was born in Rio de Janeiro after her family emigrated from the impoverished state of Paraiba, home of the Potiguara Indians. Raised in a favela, or shantytown, she was ridiculed by other children because of her Indian descent. But she drew strength from her mother and her maternal grandmother, "women with a real fighting spirit," strong role models who made numerous sacrifices to guarantee an education for Eliane.

At a young age she discovered her vocation for teaching: when she was just twelve years old she studied half days and worked the rest of the day at the neighborhood school teaching students to read and write, in exchange for a small salary and donations of food. In high school, she taught primary school in the mornings, attended her own school in the afternoons, and worked as a telephone operator at night--every day of the week, including Saturdays and Sundays. After graduating, she taught at rural schools for a few more years before attending the university, where she developed an interest in indigenous linguistics.

With two children in tow, she quit teaching and traveled to Paraguay, Uruguay, and southern Brazil to study the Guarani Indians, particularly the societal role of women. Later, she returned to her roots, living among the Potiguara Indians, where her third child was born. Back in Rio de Janeiro, she helped create an advisory group for indigenous affairs at the city council.

Eliane participates actively in a number of Brazilian organizations, such as the Union of Indigenous Nations.