Adornment made by an indigenous artisan was delivered by the bishop of the city, Dom Edson Damian, who is part of a delegation of 17 religious from the Brazilian Amazon at the Vatican
A multi-ethnic headdress was taken to the Vatican by Bishop Edson Damian, from São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM), a city known for having the highest concentration of indigenous population in the country. He was part of the entourage of 17 bishops from the Brazilian Amazon who attended the meeting with the Pope.
The artisan and indigenous entrepreneur Gilda da Silva Barreto, from the Baré people, resident of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, received the commission to make the adornment. “It was an honor and I thought of a headdress inspired by the Amazon, with the colors, the beauty, but also with the problems of the climate. People only think about getting rich, but they don't think about preserving. I put red feathers on the underside for that reason,” she explained. “I live in the indigenous culture and I am Catholic. I carry the two things together,” she said.
Upon receiving the headdress, the Pope joked asking if it was a miter, the piece traditionally used by the religious to cover the head during ceremonies.
Participated in the meeting representatives of the North Regional 1 of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) from the states of Amazonas and Roraima and from the Northwest (Acre, South of Amazonas and Rondônia). The Archbishop of Manaus, Dom Leonardo Steiner, named on May 29 as the first cardinal of the Brazilian Amazon, was also part of the group.
the meeting jIt was already scheduled, but it coincided with the murder of journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Araújo, in Vale do Javari, in Amazonas. The crime led to mobilizations in various parts of the world with requests for justice and also generated a series of complaints about the neglect of the current Federal Government with the Amazon and its peoples.
According to information on the Vatican's official website, the Pope urged the bishops to "listen to indigenous peoples, listen to base communities". attacks on the Amazon. "Brazil is back on the hunger map. There are a large number of unemployed and indigenous peoples are being threatened in their territories, in their right to live, in their culture and traditions. Mining companies, agribusiness, the illegal mining - All this is destroying our Amazon”, he lamented.
Bishop Edson also thanked Pope Francis for the Synod for the Amazon, held in 2019, but also for listening to indigenous peoples that took place before that meeting. “In São Gabriel da Cachoeira, residents of the most distant communities received questionnaires and were heard,” he said. “This is the church that lives the plurality, the diversity of peoples, languages, culture, religiosities spread all over the world”, he added.
The Pope also received as a gift a painting produced in 1989 by an indigenous artist known as Cardoso, entitled “SOS Yanomami” and which already denounced the constant threats to the people of this ethnic group. This gift was delivered by Monsignor Lúcio Nicoletto, apostolic administrator of Roraima. In April, the Hutukara Yanomami Association released report on the humanitarian crisis generated by mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land.
Recently, the Public Defender's Office of the State of Amazonas (DPE-AM) denounced serious problems related to the health and that of Yanomami children living in the State of Amazonas, instituting a Collective Damage Assessment Procedure (Padac) in order to investigate possible violations the fundamental rights of the Yanomami in the municipalities of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro and Barcelos.