STAGE: PRODUCTION

Directors: Cleu Munduruku & Patrick Granja

Estimated Duration: 90 minutes

Executive Producers: Juliana Guajajara, Kaliman Chiappini, Ana Beatriz Salgado & Jason O’Hara

Tags: Human Rights, Amazon, Environment

 

“Wakoborün: The Warrior Women” is a feature-length documentary that depicts the lives of a family of Indigenous women from the Munduruku People, spanning three generations — mother and daughters — known for their staunch defense of their territory against the greed of illegal miners. They live in the Munduruku Indigenous Territory, in the southwestern part of the state of Pará, a region plagued since 2016 by the activities of illegal miners.

 

CLEU is both the director and the main character of the story, and like her mother, Isaura, she lives in Jacareacanga, very close to the conflict areas between Indigenous people and miners. Her view of the ethno-environmental problem is the backbone of the film. In its early moments, the film follows her discreetly as she searches for evidence of miners' presence within the Indigenous territory.

 

She uses a drone to get an aerial view of the impacted areas. Fear is constant, as there is a high likelihood that miners are monitoring her movements. On the banks of the Kabitutu River, miners watch Cleu pass by in a small motorboat. Fearless, she pulls out her phone and films the criminals on the riverbank. Cleu has the support of her mother, Chief Isaura, and her older sister, Indigenous leader and law student Maria Leusa Munduruku.

 

Isaura is the matriarch and lives in the Fazenda Tapajós Village, on the banks of the river of the same name. In January 2021, the village was invaded and looted by miners. Indigenous people were tortured because the invaders were looking for Maria Leusa, Isaura's eldest daughter, but she was not there. She is the leader of the Wakoborün Association of Munduruku Women and has been denouncing the heavy presence of miners in the region since 2016.

 

Throughout the course of the river, the presence of illegal mining in the lands of the Munduruku People is a ticking time bomb. In the Upper Tapajós, the situation is even more dire. Due to the distance from ports, airports, and large cities, very few researchers, journalists, or filmmakers go there.

 

The three main characters of the film are women from the same family and different generations. This feature highlights the resilience of the Munduruku women, members of a historically patriarchal society, who have taken the reins of a deadly fight against illegal mining.

 

Indigenous peoples and their territories are under imminent threat across the country, and the relevance of their culture and ancestry has not been so widely questioned by the general public in a long time. Environmental denialism and growing racism against these peoples make our project an important initiative to rescue this culture and raise public awareness about the environmental impacts of illegal mining in the Amazon.