The Guarani have had their ancestral lands stolen from them by ranchers and sugar-cane farmers, who have razed their forests. The Indians have nowhere to live but the roadside. © Paul Borhaug/Survival Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro Maracanã When rebuilding work started for the World Cup, a group of 70 Indians from 17 different tribes who were occupying an abandoned 19th-century mansion by the stadium were evicted, and their home destroyed, to make way for a giant car park and the construction of a football museum. The Indians wanted the building to be preserved as an Indigenous Cultural Centre. This colonial mansion was home to the first institute of indigenous cultural research in Brazil in 1910. Soon after, it became the main office for the Indian Protection Service, today FUNAI. Until 1978, it was the headquarters of the Museum of the Indian People in Brazil.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 14:08:47 +0000