by ELLIE MAY
Guarani-Kaiowá Indians protest in Brasília -José Cruz/ABr
We need to talk about the mental health of the Guarani-Kaiowá people in Brazil. World Mental Health day should be a time to look forward and seek improvements for people suffering from mental illness.
And taking action becomes even more urgent once you learn that every six days, a Guarani person commits suicide.
The Guarani peoples are one of Brazil’s most ancient tribes who were there when the first Europeans arrived. It’s estimated they once numbered half a million but today they number around 51,000.
Last week I met Elizeu Lopes, a Guarani-Kaiowá leader from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. What he shared with us shocked me: over the last ten years, suicide has been one of the Guarani’s biggest killers, with children as young as nine taking their own life. This makes the Guarani’s suicide rate the highest in the world.
“We live under systematic constant massacres,” Elizeu Lopes
Very often, the reasons for someone tragically taking their own life are opaque and loved ones struggle to understand. I can’t help but think that with the Guarani, the reasons are far clearer.
Elizeu told us how every twelve days, one of their community is killed – by paramilitaries, security personnel working for large agricultural business or even by one of their own community. Members of their community have been beaten to death, shot and poisoned.
Brutal action is taken against them seemingly as punishment – three days after the UN Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples visited Elizeu’s village to look into their situation, their houses were burnt to the ground.
“We Have No Space”
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