Book Publication for Kaiowá Nation, Brazil

Who I am:

Hello, I'm Janae Million, a 29 year old American who moved to Brazil when I was 8 years old. Having a father who is an anthropologist, I grew up with great interest in other peoples, their values and new ways of doing things. I moved back to California to complete my undergraduate degree in Human Biology at UCSC, and then back to Brasília, Brazil to do my master's in Botany at UnB, the Federal University of Brasília. During my master's research I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the Kaiowá indigenous people, documenting their uses of medicinal plants. An article of my studies has been published in the journal of the Botanical Garden in Rio de Janeiro, Rodriguesia.

My research:

As a wish of the Kaiowá, I am appealing here for financial support to finish a book that will share more detailed uses of the 86 plants I collected during my research. This book will reveal millennial knowledge about plant uses, much of which is quite complex. The Kaiowá contain knowledge of different plant mixtures to treat diabetes, STDs, gastrointestinal diseases and even for permanent or temporary natural contraceptives, and for spiritual purposes. Along with transmitting this knowledge, the book indicates new ways of contemplating plant relationships, along with some of the plants that are sacred to the Kaiowá.

Reciprocation:

This book is one way of giving back to the Kaiowá, who helped me to document their plant knowledge to complete my master's program.

Who the Kaiowá are and why they need our help:

The Kaiowá are a subset of the Guarani nation, which is, or was, one of the largest indigenous nations in South America. Archeological research estimates that the Guarani have lived in the region for at least 3,000 years. It's estimated that today 300,000 Guarani still exist across different countries in South America. Among them, the Kaiowá have lived in the southern part of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), Brazil and in Paraguay.

While they have had generally peaceful relationships with non-Indians, teaching them, for instance, to harvest and use mate tea, the Kaiowá have suffered high rates of homicide for centuries. Increasing losses of their land combined with assimilation pressures have also led to high rates of suicide among their youth. Studying their heartbreaking history of constant land losses to Mate and other monocrop farms, continuously rendering their people increasingly vulnerable, easily makes these high suicide rates understandable.

Though 8 reservations that have been demarcated for Guarani and Kaiowá to live on in MS state, the conditions on these reservations are so horrendous that many Kaiowá prefer to live in temporary roadside encampments or to remain on lands that they have been removed from by private armed militias, with no governmental intervention or regulation. Land disputes of this region have been on a rise over the last hundred years, with the rise of Brazilian agribusiness with dramatically increasing soy, corn and sugar exportations.

Such a vulnerable form of existence makes it difficult for the Kaiowá to recreate their traditional ways of life, leading many to assimilate, as they search for rudimentary support in churches offering basics, food baskets and shelter, in exchange for religious conversion. Seeing this process of transformation which turns a proud people into landless peasants while turning their lands, plants and animals into a "green desert", it becomes completely understandable that many of them experience existential crises.

The group of people I worked with, the Kaiowá of Tekoha Takwara, are a group that has chosen to remain on their traditional land, despite the difficulties. Their land made it through the rigorous process of land demarcation in 2010, which took many years. A month after the reservation's demarcation a document was issued by a Judge, a relative of the land owner, which suspended the demarcation's validity. Because of this, the Kaiowá of Takwara have no guarantee that the land on which they live does not belong to a private monocrop farm which has almost completely cleared the region of all native flora and fauna.

In the climate of the current government, all land claims that were in the process of demarcation, over 235 claims, have been annulled. Illegal farms located on Indigenous Reservations throughout Brazil have been granted ownership certifications. Deforestation nationwide has risen to an estimate of over 3,000 hectares (about 5600 football fields) a day.

My Book Project:

My book project is a record of the Kaiowá's medicinal and botanical knowledge. It will contain the Guarani name, common name and latin name or scientific identity of each plant, with illustrations and detailed uses of each species written in Portuguese and in English.

While the Kaiowá willingly helped me to document this information to complete my master's thesis, this book is my way of giving back to the community, for them to have a document of the knowledge that has been assembled which also serves as an intermediary between their own forms of plant knowledge and that of scientists. This can be used in many ways: botanically it transmits traditional knowledge in written form, historically it is a document that affirms the long presence of the Kaiowá in the region, and culturally it shows younger generations the ways of Kaiowá life. Though it is only a book, I see it as an opportunity to support the Kaiowá by recording knowledge that may be lost, in the 'white-man format of a book,' and documenting plants that may be soon cleared.

It also serves to open access about plant knowledge and stimulate dialogue between the Kaiowá and other ethnic groups. By creating a scientific document of Kaiowá knowledge, the book may increase indigenous representation at local schools. Most importantly, it is a way to value their knowledge and ways of life, lifting the self esteem and morale of a people that have been heavily forgotten, marginalized and demoralized.

What the money will be used for:

Numerous people, including Kaiowá medicine men and women, plant specialists, botanical illustrators, translators, and biologists have graciously contributed to this book. The Foundation for Indigenous Medicine is graciously sponsoring paying the illustrators for their illustrations, to ensure that each plant has its deserved image, making the plants more easily identifiable and to make the book more beautiful and attractive to engage with.

I am raising money to hire a graphic designer to layout our book, to pay the Kaiowá for their work and contributions, and for editing and publication. We hope that the University of Brasília will sponsor publishing our book, but in case it does not, the rest of the money will go towards publication and printing costs.

Paying the Kaiowá for their work is important because although we already have the name of each plant in Guarani, and what it is used for, they will be able to spend the time to write or draw whatever they desire about their medicinal plants in their language, to pass down through generations.

1/3 of the books will be given to the Kaiowá, for them to sell and be used at local schools. Most of book sale profits will also go towards supporting the Kaiowá, in the form of legal assistance, investigating their land rights, etc.

We plan to close this fundraiser by the end of 2021 to focus our energy on next steps of publishing our book.

Thank you for your interest in my project!

Kindly help by donating, or in addition, purchase a 2022 Calendar with Kaiowá medicinal plant illustrations!

We warmly welcome any form of contribution that is possible and are available to answer any questions. For $30, a bilingual, 13-month Calendar, containing botanical illustrations of the Kaiowá's medicinal plants, along with information about them, can be purchased at my email address. Thank you so much for your support!