By Cliver Ccahuanihancco Arque (Quechua, CS Workers) and Carlos Madrigal (Mazahua/Jñatjo, CS Workers)
“One physique: we reproduce via it, we exist via it, and our spirituality is rather more related to the Earth via it.”
The variety of expressions and manifestations of id has been a recurring theme over time. Ideas and perceptions have different in several contexts from urbanization to globalization. Nevertheless, these don’t all the time reply to or embody all the range that exists on this planet.
Kuenan Tikuna (Tariano and Tikuna) from Brazil talks about her actuality as an Indigenous youth dealing with urbanization, and the way gender and sexual range are sometimes represented. Tikuna is a 19-year-old trans lady who belongs to 2 cultures: Tikuna Peoples from Alto Solimões on her mom’s facet, and Tariano Peoples from Alto Negro on her father’s facet. She at present works as an artist, activist, mannequin, and Indigenous communicator within the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon Community and the Makira E’ta Community (Community of Indigenous Girls of the State of Amazonas).
Tikuna can also be a part of the chief crew on the Miriã Mahsã Collective, which is the primary 2SLGBTQ+ Indigenous collective within the state of Amazonas. As well as, she is a part of the Indigenous Youth of the Federation of the Organizations of the Chiefs of Tikuna Indigenous Communities in her area. Cultural Survival spoke with Tikuna about problems with gender and variety amongst Indigenous youth in Brazil.
“Since we, Indigenous Peoples, have been in our territories, we now have been violated, even at this time, and primarily via our our bodies. At the moment, every thing, particularly these Western ideas which have been imposed on our our bodies, are the results of colonization,” Tikuna mentioned, expounding that the conflict of faith and tradition has created social battle. “Gender was not one thing particular to us, to the folks. It was rather more about relationships, about our connection of respect for nature and persevering with our ancestral legacy.”
The City Context Is A lot Extra Violent
With a purpose to proceed her college research, Tikuna needed to transfer to Brasilia. There, she encountered numerous challenges but additionally fashioned alliances that contributed to her private and cultural growth. She mentioned that in city areas, she encounters criticism and prejudice about how a trans particular person needs to be, and that it’s tough for folks in her college to grasp or settle for this id.
“As a lot as we now have that false sense of acceptance, sadly folks right here within the city context are rather more violent. Being an Indigenous particular person, and being a trans particular person on prime of that, these two points all the time find yourself intersecting,” Tikuna mentioned.
Tikuna mentioned it was difficult to hitch collectives and really feel snug at college since id and sexual range in these settings are sometimes non-inclusive. “There have been actually violent issues that traumatized me even throughout the motion itself, particularly from the 2SLGBTQ+ motion, which was very white. Now we have a course of the place we care for ourselves first, earlier than expressing our id to the remainder of the world.
Regardless of the goodwill and heat welcome she was given by some, it was tough for Tikuna to really feel seen and understood due to the cultural clashes in views. Many questioned her look for not conforming to the stereotypical picture of a lady. “In my tradition, I’ve to chop my hair as a result of it is a factor of leaving the power behind,” Tikuna mentioned. Nevertheless, she mentioned, many questioned whether or not she was actually a trans lady if she saved her hair brief.
A Physique Related to the Territory
For Tikuna, the connection along with her territory is assumed from her physique. There’s a connection between the particular person and the land that results in the return to this similar territory on the finish of 1’s life. It’s on this spirituality the place id is discovered, however that is tough to clarify in an city context, which is extra sexualized and stereotypically gendered than Indigenous communities are usually.
Tikuna mentioned she defines herself as “A physique, as a result of we reproduce via it, we exist via it, and our spirituality is rather more related to the Earth.” When she is questioned about who and what she is, she turns the query again on the questioner, responding, “’What’s in me?’ I’ve brief hair, which is a cultural factor in my village, however there are additionally cis girls who put on their hair brief and they’re no much less girls.”
Who’s Kuenan Tikuna? “[I am] a trans lady, [I am] an Indigenous particular person. With a purpose to strengthen ourselves and to exist, we now have to say ourselves in these areas. I left the college and I got here again to my neighborhood with that thought: we do not actually have a notion of what gender and sexuality is,” she mentioned.
Many ideas and ideas established in city areas do not need resonance in Indigenous communities, a minimum of not in the identical type or title. That’s the reason Tikuna returned to her neighborhood of origin, to mix each worlds, her life in her village and life on the college. She needs to boost consciousness in order that others do not need to undergo the emotions of isolation and tradition shock that she skilled.
“What I’ve contributed up to now, since I used to be born, being a trans woman, has been primarily to coach the folks round me,” Tikuna mentioned, including that she believes that it’s essential to enhance the academic methods and encourage higher understanding of the varied expressions of gender and sexuality past the dominant conceptions of the worldwide north and the West.
The present state of affairs in Brazil is an invite for reflection, as there are a major variety of folks belonging to the 2SLGBTQ+ neighborhood; in keeping with the College of Sao Paulo, as of 2022, they represent 12 p.c of the nationwide inhabitants.
Nevertheless, though there was progress, there may be not but a transparent state of affairs for political participation and initiatives to enhance the standard of life for 2SLGBTQ+ folks in Brazil.
