00:00:30
I’ve been fishing since my childhood.
00:00:32
This is quite interesting.
00:00:34
My mom, whenever she would go
to the sea, she would take me.
00:00:37
We end up passing on this culture of ours.
00:00:40
My children go to the mangrove
00:00:44
and there is a mangrove
flower that we name ‘‘pipe’’.
00:00:48
It’s a small flower that falls standing up.
00:00:52
So, when they leave, I tell them:
00:00:53
"Don’t touch the pipe because the pipe
00:00:55
will fall standing and the
mangrove will be born already".
00:00:57
This way, they already come with a
sense of respect to the mangrove.
00:01:00
For us, the mangrove is sacred.
00:01:38
There are days when I think that
the tides are well arranged,
00:01:40
so tidy, so pretty.
00:01:43
There are days when it is upset, like…
00:01:46
us women as well.
00:01:48
There are days when we are more beautiful,
and there are days when we are more upset.
00:01:51
Thus, I relate the mangrove
and the mud to a woman.
00:01:57
In fishing, we feel free.
00:02:00
There’s this relation of feeling
liberated and free.
00:02:04
At the mangrove, women sing on the mud,
they sing at the mangrove.
00:02:10
It’s a moment of bliss,
that, at the same time
00:02:12
one is working, one is happy
00:02:15
sharing and talking to the mangrove itself.
00:02:24
I love our mangroves.
00:02:26
Do you know why?
00:02:27
Because it is from here that
we take our nourishment.
00:02:29
We don’t starve here in our community.
00:02:32
I’ve told you that whatever
we need, we have here:
00:02:35
fish, oisters, mussel, seacrab, aratu-crab.
00:02:40
I am a fisher. Our mangrove has it all,
00:02:43
without us having to ask
favours from anyone.
00:02:47
When I say that the sea is a therapy,
00:02:51
it’s because I was born there,
I was born in it.
00:02:56
It is its sound that makes
me sleep, that makes me reflect.
00:03:07
I like it because… I don’t know.
00:03:09
I myself don’t even know why,
you know, but I like it.
00:03:12
It’s not very profitable, but
you can make a living out of it.
00:03:16
It’s the thing I like to do.
00:03:18
When we see that big circle
of the moon, really big,
00:03:21
we know that the tide is good,
and it will have a lot of seafood.
00:03:27
There is no mud without mangrove.
00:03:30
The mangrove has its role.
It is the mangrove that is the nursery
00:03:33
of the crabs, among others
00:03:36
and which is taken to the mud.
00:03:38
Then, this relationship between
the mangrove, the apicum-crab,
00:03:42
the waters and mud is which
cannot be dismissed.
00:03:46
The mangrove is
fundamental in our lives.
00:03:54
Women of the tides
00:04:04
We leave home in our canoes
in the morning, with the tide…
00:04:07
it depends on the time,
sometimes it is 7am, 7:30, 8am.
00:04:12
We leave when the tide is full.
00:04:15
And we row until…
00:04:17
about 40 minutes or an hour away,
depending on where we want to go.
00:04:21
We row a lot.
00:04:24
When we get there, the tide is already lower.
00:04:26
We wait a little bit, and then we start fishing.
00:04:28
We drink a little water, we eat a banana,
00:04:29
eat a cracker,
00:04:31
we put our shoes on,
00:04:32
fix the fishing rod, put on the bait,
00:04:34
we put a little bit of extra sunscreen,
00:04:37
and we go fishing.
00:05:28
The aratu-crab is very clever.
00:05:31
There are people who catch it while fishing,
00:05:34
they put a piece of dried meat,
or sausage, tie it to a rope
00:05:38
stay above the mangrove
00:05:40
and make a noise to alert it wherever it is.
00:05:45
And then, it comes, because it’s very
curious, looking for what made the noise.
00:05:52
Then it comes and holds to the bait.
Then one has a bucket,
00:05:55
and then one pulls and throws it in the bucket,
pulls and throws in the bucket.
00:05:59
Come on, aratu…
00:06:00
come near, aratu…
00:06:05
We go on shouting, whistling,
singing, banging on the bucket…
00:06:11
Come on, aratu.
00:07:11
I do not see myself doing
anyting else but fishing.
00:07:14
All I know is to fish.
00:07:16
I provide for my two boys with the fishing.
00:07:18
How can it be that this sea and this
mud can not survive, or have no future?
00:07:23
If I can live off of it, if I can pay
my water and electricity off fishing?
00:07:29
I just fish.
00:07:31
And how is it so that the
artisinal fishing has no future?
00:07:35
It is the sea that determines
my work. I have no boss.
00:07:39
I love saying that: "I have no boss".
00:07:42
Who decides is the tide.
00:07:44
It is the tide that tells me
when to leave and when to come back.
00:07:54
I think one of the biggest problems
that we face in fishery today is this:
00:07:58
there is no added value to our fish.
00:08:03
We have no boss to keep us
from going to the sea,
00:08:06
but there is still the middleman that says:
00:08:08
"This is the price for your fish.
00:08:11
I will not pay more than R$ 15
for a kilo of your fish’’
00:08:14
And you work really hard to catch that kilo.
00:08:27
Women have always conducted activities
00:08:32
in a bigger time frame than men.
00:08:36
But, at the same time, we’ve always been stuck in a process of invisibility,
00:08:44
because we were regarded as those who help.
00:08:47
That who helps and, at the same time,
is in the catching procedure,
00:08:53
in improvement and commercialization.
00:09:14
We do it, we need to have the will power to do it.
00:09:17
You cannot go soft on this job, oh, no.
00:09:19
You have to say that you’re going to do
it and do it. And by taking a job here,
00:09:22
give a slack here, catch up there…
00:09:24
I go check the pan on the stove, come back,
sit down and continue catching.
00:09:27
Do you know what I mean?
00:09:29
The clothes are soaking, I am over
here, but I get there quickly,
00:09:31
then I rinse the clothes, put them
up to dry, and come back.
00:09:33
Our life is pretty rushed.
00:09:44
We go on cracking, cracking, cracking.
00:09:47
Do you know how many
aratu-crabs are there to add up…
00:09:50
to that much weight?
00:09:51
Say, for example, a kilo.
It depends on their size,
00:09:54
if they are bigger, or smaller,
00:09:56
it’s about 160 to 200
aratu-crabs to make up a kilo.
00:10:00
Cracked, of course, just the meat.
00:10:02
The bigger ones, then that would be
maybe 100 or 120 aratu-crabs
00:10:05
to make up a kilo of their meat.
00:10:07
That’s the second part of
our job at the mangrove.
00:10:12
To catch, no matter how good you are,
00:10:15
you can get, in average, three kilos a day,
00:10:19
those who are fast.
00:10:21
The slower ones, they can catch
one and a half to two kilos a day,
00:10:25
but that is for working all day long.
00:11:07
It is the woman who coordinates.
It is the woman who administers.
00:11:13
In the world of fishing, for instance,
and I believe it is so all around Brazil,
00:11:18
the fisherwomen coordinate their homes.
00:11:23
Hence, in the context of
the quilombola issue,
00:11:28
when it comes to fishing, it is them
who take control over the situation,
00:11:30
even when conflict arises, if necessary.
00:11:33
The women are in the
frontline of these conflicts.
00:11:36
The women are also the most
vulnerable to these conflicts.
00:11:40
They are vulnerable to the
arrival of these enterprises.
00:11:44
Actually, women are vulnerable to anything,
00:11:48
but also empowered by
the discourse they possess,
00:11:51
and in the way they run
their families life styles.
00:13:20
So, we are not just fighting
for our life quality,
00:13:24
but also for those who eat our fish
00:13:27
the fish distributed by the free fairs to
the whole region and everywhere else.
00:13:31
So, the fight is about securing the territory,
00:13:37
is about the health of these women.
00:13:39
And let the government
find a way to improve
00:13:43
the quality of their work.
00:13:59
Come, fellow men, no more indecision.
00:14:05
Come, enlarge the rank,
spread the flag of liberation.
00:14:11
Come, fellow women, this is our moment.
00:14:17
Come from all sides and, arm in arm, join the movement.
00:14:23
Let’s all together raise our way of life
00:14:29
In the fishing ground, to live and work.
00:14:35
From North to South, how pretty,
to see the classe organized.
00:14:41
Joining men and women. Following the march on foot.
00:14:58
Look, here is the sugar cane,
there is Goiana.
00:15:03
When they set fire to this area,
00:15:06
this polution goes all
inside of the village.
00:15:13
This here is a "baldo".
00:15:14
It’s called a "baldo", this mud barrier,
00:15:18
which was made by the machines.
00:15:20
It is dug so that the river
won’t come this way anymore.
00:15:24
This here could all be
a mangrove field, our estuary.
00:15:29
That cannot be anymore,
because this dike is made
00:15:33
for the sugar cane plantation
00:15:37
where the poison is placed, and when
it rains, it falls down into the river.
00:15:40
Look here how the water is flowing black, from here to the sea.
00:15:52
Here is where the residues flow
00:15:56
When the residue pours, it is
through there, through this pipe.
00:16:00
Look at the difference in the water
that flows from the refinery
00:16:02
without residues, so to speak.
00:16:06
Look how it comes from there
and falls into the river.
00:16:09
The pesticide that the airplane dropps
onto the sugar cane field, it kills.
00:16:16
When the airplane doesn't come,
00:16:19
then come the men with
masks on their faces
00:16:22
and with those pumps on their backs
00:16:25
and they spray it on the
sugar canes, manually.
00:16:28
When it rains, it flows into the
river and then it all over
00:16:32
It stinks!
00:16:34
It smells bad and the fish
are all dead, belly up, floating.
00:16:39
Sometimes we come here to the river margins…
00:16:42
It is called "Roundup", this poison.
00:16:45
It is called "Roundup"…
00:16:47
We come here often, and when
we arrive we take pity on it.
00:16:51
Big fish, small fish,
00:16:52
it all turns white, with their bellies up.
00:17:01
Smell the stench.
00:17:30
Most fishers that leave
here to take the preventive test
00:17:34
at the local health clinic, they
get a germ called ‘‘coccobacillus’’.
00:17:40
Most fishers, they all have it.
00:17:43
When we get to the health clinic,
00:17:44
we get a cream to put in the vagina,
00:17:47
but everyday is the same fight is
the same, we have to be in the water.
00:17:50
We feel an itch, a burning.
00:17:53
It is an itch that stings,
00:17:57
but we use the cream and
it goes away for 15 days,
00:18:02
one month without feeling that
00:18:05
but the struggle is
the same and after a month,
00:18:07
we get the same symptom all over again.
00:18:09
That's it…
00:18:10
The polution here is discharged with
the tide and on the mangroves
00:18:16
because there is no sewerage
system for the discharge.
00:18:22
The sewers are short…
00:18:26
it is small, it is at the shore
00:18:29
It should extend,
00:18:31
maybe if it was extended further,
there would be less polution.
00:18:36
I just want my island to have basic sanitation.
00:18:40
So that we can feel like we’re people,
and not see our sewage going to the sea,
00:18:46
our feces on the water, floating
00:18:49
in a place that was supposed to be
sacred for our children to bathe
00:18:53
for us to catch our shellfish with dignity.
00:18:57
And not to hear reports that it is polluted.
00:19:15
To us, Petrobras is synonymous with
misery, it is synonymous with hunger.
00:19:23
We live surrounded by…
00:19:26
I, for instance,
00:19:27
live in a community that has 14 oil wells.
00:19:30
Almost every year,
the Landulpho Alves Refinery
00:19:32
has a spill.
00:19:35
In 2009 and 2008, there were
the biggest spills in Brazil
00:19:40
and it was here in my community.
00:19:41
Even today we suffer the consequences.
00:19:45
The lack of fish relates to the
big spills from the companies,
00:19:48
that is, the Landulpho Alves Refinery,
00:19:53
Proquigel, Dow Chemical,
00:19:56
the Aratu Port, that is coming up
with an expansion model.
00:20:00
Expanding the port means an impact.
00:20:03
Now, they talk of Thermoelectric Complex,
00:20:10
which is the largest thermal
power plant in Latin America.
00:20:13
To generate energy, they will use that
product from Petrobras, the "bunker",
00:20:17
which is a crude oil, without treatment.
00:20:21
This material causes
a so called "acid rain",
00:20:26
which for our lives is
another contamination.
00:20:31
When we go investigate and
check out what this causes…
00:20:35
at the least, it is cancer.
00:20:38
A little further from here, geographically,
00:20:41
close to the Margarida Salt Mine,
00:20:44
is the "Enseada do Paraguaçu Shipyard".
00:20:49
This enterprise brought
up several environmental impacts,
00:20:54
the rocks here were imploded,
00:20:58
many hectares of
mangroves were destroyed
00:21:02
and we went through 2013,
the worst year for fishing.
00:21:11
And now comes Fiat, comes the glass
factory, comes the drug factory,
00:21:16
and other industries
that will soon be here.
00:21:19
Whatever benifts that may bring,
so far we have seen nothing.
00:21:22
When these folks here from Goiana
finish building these industries,
00:21:25
they will be unemployed.
00:21:27
We must preserve our tide,
our river, our mangrove,
00:21:31
because that is the only industry where
we will never see a closed door
00:21:34
to our fishers.
00:21:37
Where will all these people go if we
lose the sea and the mangroves?
00:21:44
If we lose our fish, then what
are we going to live by?
00:21:47
I can't do anything
else and not even want to!
00:21:49
So, how are we going to live by?
To survive on what?
00:21:52
There hasn’t been a single year
that we haven’t felt an impact
00:21:54
of these companies around our mangroves.
00:21:57
And then it gets complicated, it kills
the mangrove, it kills the nursery,
00:22:02
and our lives, it is our bodies,
00:22:05
as you have seen, my body is in the mud.
00:22:08
And the mud is already
with a chemical product
00:22:11
that will cause some sort of disease
00:22:14
to us, fisherwomen, with our
bodies dumped in this mud.
00:22:21
Enough!
00:22:29
There are times when they are deep
down and we can’t catch them.
00:22:46
We wander a lot to catch a kilo,
00:22:49
two kilos of aratu-crab.
00:22:51
We walk a lot, indeed,
00:22:53
going up and down the
mangroves, walking in deep mud.
00:22:57
We get all beaten.
00:23:01
We take out the oyster, fill this bucket.
00:23:04
This here, filled with oyster, weights
around 20 kilos or more.
00:23:08
Oysters are heavy.
00:23:10
From here we drag it all
the way outside, to the canal…
00:23:15
inside the mud pulling weight.
00:23:17
We are artisan fishers.
00:23:19
We work very hard.
00:23:21
The fatigue is stressful.
00:23:23
We end up in a situation,
sometimes, it's enough…
00:23:26
There is no way one
is not feeling any pain.
00:23:29
It is difficult, in such a job,
to come home and say:
00:23:32
’I don’t feel any pain at all, I am fine’’.
00:23:34
It’s difficult. Because it does hurt.
00:23:59
I stay like this.
00:24:01
Then, when I get tired and my back
hurts a little, sometimes my knees,
00:24:05
I switch positions and I stay like this.
00:24:10
Do you get it?
00:24:12
With the basket almost full,
00:24:14
I put the bucket on my head, I kneel
with the bucket on my head,
00:24:17
I take the basket and throw it up.
00:24:20
Sometimes, this arm of mine hurts like hell.
00:24:24
There are days when
I can’t even raise it.
00:24:37
One needs to create an
instrument from the need
00:24:41
to listen to these people.
00:24:42
It is useless to do things
without listening
00:24:45
and sitting with us to get it organized.
00:24:48
So, the occupational disease, it was…
00:24:51
The discussion about the occupational
disease, by Professor Paulo Pena.
00:24:55
Paulo Pena came to the community,
went to the mangroves,
00:24:58
to see how we did it and how we worked,
00:25:03
and which difficulties we were facing.
00:25:05
And along with us that
became a wonderful thing…
00:25:11
fisherwomen have a policy
00:25:15
to deal with occupational diseases.
00:25:19
When we are ill and we
realize that there is no way
00:25:22
to do this job of ours,
we must refer to a doctor
00:25:26
so that we can
improve our health issues
00:25:30
and continue our work.
00:25:32
But sometimes we go the
doctor and we’re cared for.
00:25:36
There are doctors who
don’t even look at our faces.
00:25:38
Sometimes they barely
ask us what we feel.
00:25:41
They give us worm medication,
dypirone and that’s it.
00:25:45
We can’t even speak.
00:25:48
If they gave us a proper report
00:25:53
so that we could go to the social
welfare and get the benefits
00:25:58
that would be a good thing for us.
00:26:01
But whoever goes gets it denied.
00:26:03
We, fisherwomen, when
we reach 55 years of age,
00:26:05
we can retire.
00:26:09
When I filed my retirement request,
00:26:11
the first time, it was denied.
00:26:13
I filed it a second time,
and it was denied again.
00:26:16
In my case, I tried three times.
00:26:18
It is hopeless!
00:26:20
That way, I’m turning 59, which I did
00:26:23
and still not retired.
00:26:25
These are just some of the
issues that many of us have
00:26:28
and that the State simply
does not recognize.
00:26:30
That the Government
just denies as if it had…
00:26:36
… people trained to deny
these right to our people.
00:26:39
It seems like the State goes to college
00:26:43
to get specialized in denying
rights to these people.
00:27:29
In 2011, when this school started,
00:27:32
there was a lot of people here.
Everybody quiet,
00:27:35
not really understanding much.
00:27:36
We would go around in fear,
hesitating to speak up.
00:27:39
But we started studying
at school and to understand
00:27:42
what the school was telling us:
00:27:43
No, you don’t have to be silent,
you must say what you are feeling,
00:27:47
you must show what
your community is feeling,
00:27:49
what your community is going through.
00:27:53
With that, today,
00:27:54
I am not afraid nor ashamed to say
00:27:55
anywhere, that I am a fisher.
00:27:57
Because earlier, most times,
00:27:59
we were ashamed to say that we are fishers,
00:28:01
because that was bad.
00:28:02
We would go to the welfare office and
you should not have your nails painted
00:28:04
because that would be bad.
00:28:05
Then, you were not a fisher…
00:28:07
if your nails were painted
and your hair was tidy.
00:28:09
Today, we learn from what is in the Law,
00:28:13
and we must understand
what the Law grants us.
00:28:18
School assures us that,
it has taught us that.
00:28:22
As well as teaching us to think about
formation and educational processes
00:28:29
and not processes of getting sicker
00:28:32
It is about bringing first
our history and our way of life.
00:28:41
Let’s go try to catch some crabby.
00:28:46
Fishing today is not easy.
00:28:48
We know the guaiamum-crab is
there because of their poop,
00:28:51
this poop at the border of the hole.
00:28:54
We know it is there.
00:28:55
So we take this stick. Support it…
00:29:00
when it goes in, it moves
so it automatically closes.
00:29:06
We must cover it from the sun so
that it doesn’t get killed by heat,
00:29:11
cover it up and just leave it.
00:29:14
The next day, we come, and
it’s closed down, like this.
00:29:17
We open it and it is inside.
00:29:19
This is our life.
00:29:21
It’s not easy, no, no, it’s tough.
00:29:24
But there we are, fighting.
00:29:27
And we want our mangroves clean,
00:29:29
free from pesticides,
free from sewage.
00:29:33
We do not want our mangrove
to be dirty with pollution
00:29:35
because this is where
we provide to our folks.
00:29:40
And with all these difficulties
that we have, even so,
00:29:44
there are women and men
00:29:46
that are out here all the time,
especially women,
00:29:49
fighting, resisting,
00:29:51
because it could be a lot worse hadn’t we
had the initiative to organize ourselves
00:29:56
and be struggling, both
as fishers and as people.
00:30:01
In each corner, where we know
00:30:03
that we are signing a death sentence
to our people, we occupy it.
00:30:08
And we will have to
occupy other offices,
00:30:11
we blockade the highway,
00:30:13
we shut the ports,
like the Port of Aratu,
00:30:15
we assemble in the refineries,
00:30:17
we will do everything that
we believe we must do
00:30:21
so that our lives are…
00:30:23
so that we can survive this
model that is out there
00:30:27
that, for the sake of development,
is threatening our lives.
