The BR-163 highway links the two most important migration processes in Brazil's recent history. The...
This story excerpt was translated from German. To read the original story in full, visit Brand Eins.
In the middle of the savannah, deep in the west of Brazil, Kevelen Zokezomaiake has just created a modern agricultural business in just a few sentences, but with an eye for detail: He transforms dusty paths into tarred roads and lets tractors and harvesters roll along them to their jobs.
The young man with a crew cut and a friendship bracelet on his wrist belongs to the Paresí people, an indigenous community living in the state of Mato Grosso. The Paresí call themselves Halíti, which simply means human being.
In Brazil's Indigenous territories, large-scale agricultural use is prohibited. Land and forest belong to the state, are under its protection and are supposed to be a home for the Indigenous people. While their communities feel a special connection to nature, they face the question of how to make an economic living in modern Brazilian society.
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