Pankararu indigenous peoples and their (re)existence in the political context of Minas Gerais

Abstract

This article focuses on the Pankararu indigenous community, and more strictly on its processes of resistance to the marketing logic of the state of Minas Gerais. Through a bibliographic and documentary survey, attempts to erase the culture and ways of living of these people by the state of Minas Gerais, and how, despite this (necro)political context, this community remains (re) existing and fighting for their right to be, preserving their cultures, cosmologies and relationship with nature and the territory. The Pankararu people have their experiences intertwined with forests and their beings, which makes their protection and care necessary for the existence of these people. The diaspora of these people was due to the expulsion of their ancestral territory by companies and farmers, and the persecution they suffered. Such action, largely supported by the government, by ignoring life and the land of Pankararu, is guided by a capitalist logic of use and commodification of things and individuals. Despite this entire political context that continues to seek to erase indigenous communities, they continue to resist, reestablishing territories and seeking to recover their ways of living, and in this sense, the occupation of a territory makes it possible to maintain their identities.