Indian Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWtzBxtLYls&feature=related The Day of the Indian is April 19, the day that commemorates the participation of indigenous people  in the First Interamerican Indigenista Congress, which was held in Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico, in 1940.   Indigenous leaders and government officials from all of the Americas were invited, but for the first few days the of the congress the indigenous leaders boycotted the event, which was dominated by policy makers and politicians of the American states, such as President Lazaro Cardenas, sponsor of the event.  The day April 19 was passed into law as Day of the Indian in Brazil in 1943 by President Getúlio Vargas.  It is celebrated nationally every year, but as the song by Jorge ben Jor says, "Every day was Day of the Indian", before the Europeans showed up with the idea that all the land they saw was theirs.
Yesterday the Indians of the reserves and villages south of Ilheus got painted and dressed and took the highway, singing, dancing and making merry. The southern of coast of Bahia is where Brazil was discovered, and these villages of Guarani, Pataxo, Tupinamba have long had to deal with the encroachment of the outsiders, sometimes peacefully, and sometimes not. There are ongoing land disputes in this land that bears so many names from it's indigenous history: Jairi, Cururupe, Acuipe, Sirihyba. Yesterday what was celebrated was the ongoing vitality of these peoples, walking down the highway past hotels and condominiums,  following a route by the sea that perhaps their ancestors travelled, not just people from the Jairi village of the Tupinamba and the Guarani reserve, but friends and relatives from the outside communities, a joyous throng of Bahianos on a glorious Bahian Sunday.
I wish my camera worked, but no. I have yet to figure out how to get my photos to post, but I will try and leave a video with this post.
Let's celebrate an indigenous relationship to the Earth and our surroundings every day. We live here, let's take care of our home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWtzBxtLYls&feature=related