Elieziu Marubo
Appearances
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
It's a very special place for me. I really liked playing in the river. I'd go to the river and spend hours on end. I also went out with the elderly women, who generally don't like to take boys or men with them when they go do their activities. But they made an exception with me and said, let's go, I'll take you or your brother.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
And we tried to play ball. My dad hated it. He said it was a white man's thing, a white thing. But we played there on this little field. So I learned to shoot a bow and arrow to imitate things from the adult world. And at night, everyone, a bunch of naked boys, we'd run to the river and jump from the riverbank into the water.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
and bathe until about 6 o'clock, when our mothers would come and say, come on out, threatening to punish us, and we'd run into the big hut because we knew that the elders there would protect us. When we got there, there was food, so we had dinner, ate, and played, and got dirty again, until our mothers took us to the river again for a last bath. I really liked it when there was a full moon.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
We laid down on the hammocks, one next to each other, me, my brothers and sisters, and we'd talk about things and make fun of each other or laugh at something silly someone did during the day. We would talk and talk until we got sleepy. The next day started very early. We woke up around 3 a.m., already playing, doing mischief, doing loads of things.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
When the child is born, the father or the men say, this one is going to be such and such. So I was born with this purpose, to do politics and to defend the territory. So when I was 16 years old, one day they called me to go to the main hut for a conversation. I got there, my grandfather said it was necessary for me to go to the city.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
I would learn to speak Portuguese, I'd get to know money, everything. My journey started there.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
I knew what needed to be done, but I had no idea how to do it. So I had lots of ups and downs, with bullying, with a lot of prejudice. And then, after some time, my family, my mother, came to join me. And from then on, we started to develop in the city. After a long time, I finally managed to finish high school. After high school, I took the entrance exam to university. I didn't pass.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
I only passed on my third attempt. And then I went to study law, because I realized that everything I was set to do my whole life had to do with the world of law.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
Life no longer unfolded in the same way. We started to face scarcity of certain things that we had very easily in the past. We started to experience fear of things that we had never been afraid of, like the fear of strangers appearing. And we also noticed this impact on the environment, the presence of people hunting, fishing, and exploring the territory illegally.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
In Brazil, everyone knows that there are two large criminal groups who fight for territory all over the country. In our region, they work with partners. What do they do? They bring in a person who lives close to the indigenous territory. A person who's going to die if he gets sick because he doesn't have a hospital. Someone who needs a boat to go to the city when he needs things from there.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
But he doesn't have a boat. He only has a canoe that he built with his own strength, in which he paddles for several days to reach the city. So, if he has the opportunity to get an engine for his boat, if he can get this engine in exchange for simply going to the city, of course he'll do it.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
So he can take drugs to the city, and it's okay if he's arrested, because he's a person who is being used in this process. And in the city, he will leave it somewhere, and another person who is used by the organized crime will take this drug and take it somewhere else, and will receive a pittance for it.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
Saying, look, Bruno didn't get here. He should have arrived at 8 a.m.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
In any case, here I am. I continue in the same fight as always, until the end.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
He said, no, I'm going to take the other boat and I'm going to try to find him because his boat might have broken down. So he set out to do that.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
And he got back and said, Eliezo, I didn't find Bruno. I didn't find any sign of Bruno.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
I called the authorities, I set up a team, and I went up the river again. But we didn't find him.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
We always thought he had been murdered. We didn't share this with anyone, with other people outside of our group, but we already imagined what had happened.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
I went to a different city to live in a different city. I completely changed my life. I had to break up personal relationships. I had to live alone. I had to reinvent myself. I'm Phoebe Judge.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
We cut down very few trees. The areas designated for plantations are not permanent ones. We choose a place near the community but not too close to it, we plant, and after we harvest, we plant somewhere else, so that the forest can grow back again. So there's generally a lot of fruit, whether wild or cultivated fruits.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
There's a specific area in the community where we only have medicinal plants, which are more difficult to find inside the forest. The logic is as follows. You guys buy things and store them and put them in the fridge. We don't need this because everything is at hand. If we want fish, we go to the lake and catch fish. The same thing with meat. The basis of Marubu food is red meat.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
And we really enjoy tapir meat. So we hunt tapirs, because tapir meat is the best, the most nutritious.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
Then we start talking about how people are starting to go hungry because many animals that were the basis of our diet no longer exist. So we no longer have that food safety. We have to readapt our food needs. There are regions where indigenous people lost 100% of their territory.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
They're just a year apart, so our daughters became friends. So we ended up doing things together because they wanted to be together. We started to do things like friends.
Criminal
A Murder in the Forest
We'd always say he was very similar to us. We'd say, boy, how can it be that you're so similar? His thinking was very similar to ours, so we got along very well because of that.