We are the Quilombola, Fishing and Riverbank Community of Croatá, located on the banks of the São Francisco River, in the municipality of Januária, northern Minas Gerais. Our territory is historically formed by families of Black ancestry who built their lives on the riverbanks, with artisanal fishing, planting in the floodplains, extractive activities, and living in harmony with the waters and forests as the foundation of our way of life.

We are Quilombola because we live in community, in communion with our ancestry, our faith, and our traditional territory. We are artisanal fishermen because we learned from our ancestors respect for the river, the fish, and the rhythms of nature. We are riverbank dwellers because we follow the movements of the waters, planting when the river is low and obeying the cycles of the low tide. As our people say: “the riverbank dweller cannot live without fishing and the fisherman cannot live without the low tide, everything together and mixed, one activity complements the other.”

Our relationship with the São Francisco River is profound and inseparable from our existence. For us, “the river is our father, our mother, our husband. It is everything to us.” The river, the lagoons, the forests, the animals, the plants, and the enchanted beings are part of our territory and our cosmology. The water spirits are the protectors of the waters and the fish. Mother Ipueira is the one who replenishes the lagoons and ensures the continuity of life. The forests are sacred and hold our ancestral knowledge, our traditional medicines, and the path of the waters.

Our traditional territory, however, experiences constant conflicts. Since the process of reclaiming the riverbanks, we have faced territorial disputes with farmers, land grabbers, and gunmen who threaten our leaders, destroy our crops, promote deforestation, and try to reduce our living space. We also suffer from the impacts of climate change, pollution, mining, the use of poisons, and the decrease in fish in the São Francisco River. These conflicts affect not only our people, but also the waters, the forests, and all the beings that live in our territory. Faced with these threats, we continue to build our own forms of resistance and struggle together, in the “Go in Communion.” More and more, we think about fighting together, about forming alliances, because no one fights alone. We believe in walking through the territory. We walk with the river and the forests, learning from the signs of the waters, the animals, the plants, and the enchanted beings. Walking is a way to strengthen our traditional knowledge, defend our territory, and keep alive our relationship with the multiple beings that inhabit Croatá.

Another important strategy of struggle is the batuque, a manifestation of memory, ancestry, faith, and collectivity. Through drums, songs, festivals, and community gatherings, we strengthen our bonds and reaffirm our Quilombola presence in the territory. The batuque keeps our culture and our resistance alive, uniting generations in the defense of life, the river, and the territory.

We are writing this letter to affirm that we exist, we resist, and we continue to defend our traditional territory, our ways of life, and our rights guaranteed by Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization. Our consultation protocol is also a tool for protection and autonomy, collectively constructed to ensure that any action, project, or intervention affecting our community respects our time, our organization, and our own way of deciding.

São Francisco River alive: land, water, river, and people! Free fishing territory, NOW!

Sincerely,

Quilombola, Fishing and Riverbank Community of Croatá

Januária – Minas Gerais