The Bem Viver project held another edition of the "Amazon Speaker Series" in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies - San Diego State University (SDSU). The online meetings took place on October 5, 11 and 25 with lectures and debates on indigenous rights, time frame and demarcation of territories in Brazil, as well as community-based entrepreneurship.
The meetings were aimed at SDSU students, as well as supporters of The Stiefel Behner Charitable Fund., the Bem Viver project and Nature and Culture International (NCI). The series is available on YouTube. Sônia Guajajara (Apib), Ivo Macuxi (CIR), Ana Paula Souto Maior (indigenous lawyer) Andreia Bavaresco (IEB) and Reinaldo Lourival (NCI) participated.
The partnership between the Bem Viver project and SDSU is part of the activities planned to promote the exchange of knowledge, with a focus on valuing the history and culture of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, and in particular of Roraima. The exchange seeks to establish knowledge exchange relationships with the academic community, including with the California Native Peoples Studies program.
According to Reinaldo Lourival, coordinator of Good Living at NCI, "this type of collaboration and exchange brings peoples closer together and offers opportunities for training and exchange of knowledge." "At the current time of attacks on the rights enshrined in the Constitution by indigenous peoples, solidarity and international militancy offer visibility from sources that deal with these pressures in their daily lives, as in the cases of the indigenous Ivo Macuxi (CIR) and Sônia Guajajara (APIB)," he said.
Well Living Project
Started in 2019, the Bem Viver project is aimed at building the Territorial and Environmental Management Plans (PGTA's) of the Raposa Serra do Sol and Wai Wai Indigenous Lands, both in Roraima.
The project is carried out by the Indigenous Council of Roraima, the International Institute of Education of Brazil (IEB) and International Nature and Culture (NCI) with support from the United States Agency for Development (USAID).
See the three meetings of the "Amazon Speaker Series" – 2021:
Meeting 1: "Lands, rights in the Brazilian Amazon" with Ana Paula Souto Maior (lawyer in the office of federal deputy Joênia Wapichana-Rede/RR) and Ivo Macuxi (lawyer at the Indigenous Council of Roraima - CIR);
Meeting 2: "Indigenous Peoples Day" with Sonia Bone Guajajara (indigenous leader and coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil - APIB);
Meeting 3: "Community-based Economies" with Andreia Bavaresco (forest engineer at the Institute of Education of Brazil - IEB) and Reinaldo Lourival (coordinator of Nature and Culture International - NCI Brazil);