‘Clean up your culture’: a TV host’s comment makes Indigenous Brazilians speak up
“Access to technology should be a guaranteed right to the all Brazilian citizens. To have a cell phone doesn't make (anyone) less Indigenous.”...
Host’s request for Indigenous people to hide cell phones and non-traditional clothing highlighted biased perceptions
Originally published on Global Voices
TV host Luciano Huck asking Indigenous people of the Xingu Indigenous Park to ‘clean up their culture’ for a photo. Art by Global Voices on Canva with screenshot from @txaigibran's Instagram and map from ISA (Social-environmental Institute). Fair use.
Back in August, Luciano Huck, a TV host who in the past has flirted with the idea of running for Brazil’s presidency, went to shoot an episode of his Sunday show at the Parque Indígena do Xingu (Xingu Indigenous Park), one of the main Indigenous reserves and the first Indigenous land demarcated by the federal government in the country.
Almost four months later, behind-the-scenes footage posted on Instagram showing him sitting next to singer Anitta went viral across social media, sparking backlash and highlighting issues with non-Indigenous people’s perceptions of native communities.
In the video, which lasts around a minute and 20 seconds, as people take pictures and prepare to record, you can see some Indigenous individuals holding mobile phones to capture the moment. One of them, posing in front of the host, also has his own telephone in his hand. Huck calls them out — “Cell phone!” — and asks for those wearing “non-traditional clothes” to step away. He then proceeds: “Yep, clean up your culture there,” explaining further:
É o seguinte, a gente está cheio de câmera. Quanto mais celular de vocês aparece, eu acho que menos é a cultura de vocês. Quanto mais a gente conseguir preservar as nossas cenas, sem celular…Porque assim, quando aparece celular, mexe na cultura originária. Quando a gente estiver gravando, se puder segurar o celular, eu acho que quem tiver que ver valoriza mais vocês. Se você puder falar isso para o povo é bom.
Here is the thing, we have lots of cameras here. The more cell phones from you show up, I guess is less of your culture. As much we can preserve our scenes without cell phones…Because when a cell phone is shown, it messes with original culture. When we are recording, if you can hold back with the phones, I think anyone who sees it will appreciate you more. If you can tell that to the people would be good.
The Indigenous man goes on to translate the message to his community.
The comments led Indigenous organizations in Brazil, such as Apib (Indigenous People of Brazil's Articulation) and other regional associations linked to it, to issue a joint statement shared on their Instagram pages.
Ver essa foto no Instagram
Indigenous cultures do not need to be “cleaned up.”
Our presence is political, historical, current and does not fit into your anti-Indigenous racism.
In the statement, they note that Indigenous people do not exist solely for “pretty pictures,” as museum pieces answering to certain expectations, and that the phrase “cleaning up their culture” reinforces a mistaken and dangerous view of their peoples. In the caption they also wrote:
O acesso à tecnologia deve ser um direito garantido a todos os cidadãos brasileiros. Possuir um celular não torna um parente menos indígena.
A tecnologia e a internet têm sido fundamentais para os povos indígenas na luta por seus territórios, auxiliando no monitoramento e gestão ambiental, no acesso a oportunidades de educação e trabalho, na comunicação entre comunidades, organizações e o Estado, além de possibilitar denúncias de violações de direitos indígenas que foram historicamente invisibilizadas.
Access to technology should be a guaranteed right to all Brazilian citizens. Having a cell phone doesn’t make a relative (term used to refer to other Indigenous people) less Indigenous.
Technology and the internet have been fundamental to Indigenous people in their fight for their territories, helping in monitoring them and with environmental management, accessing educational opportunities and work, in the communication between communities, organizations and the State, besides making possible to denounce Indigenous rights violations that were historically made invisible.
Apib republished the statement a few days later, expressing “indignation” over Huck's words. The image posted on their Instagram also says:
Podemos usar o que vocês usam, sem deixar de ser quem somos.
Ser indígena nunca foi sobre negar o presente, mas sobre existir com dignidade em qualquer tempo até nas telas que insistem em nos enxergar errado.
We can use what you use without stopping being who we are.
Being Indigenous was never about denying the present, but about existing with dignity at any time even in screens that insist on seeing us wrongfully.
After the backlash, Huck posted on his Instagram stories that he was misunderstood and highlighted his longstanding relationship with Indigenous people, as reported by news portal Terra:
Sobre a imagem em questão, registrada nos bastidores de uma gravação, é importante esclarecer: não se tratou de impor qualquer tipo de limitação cultural ou de consumo. Foi apenas uma decisão de direção de arte, um ajuste pontual dentro do contexto de um set de filmagem, nada além disso.
About the image in question, taken behind the scenes during a shoot, it is important to clarify: it was not about imposing any kind of cultural or consumption limitation. It was just an art direction’s decision, a punctual adjustment within the context of a film set, nothing beyond that.
Located in the state of Mato Grosso, in the center-west region of Brazil and within the Legal Amazon region, with a territory of around 27,000 square kilometers (10.4 square miles), the Xingu Indigenous Park was recognized by a federal government decree in 1961. It was the first official Indigenous land demarcated in the country. The process, however, faced resistance from the local state government and the land was only established in 1978, as noted in a story by Brasil de Direitos.
Today, Xingu’s Park is home to a population of 6,177 people from 16 Indigenous ethnicities, according to the Terras Indígenas do Brasil info page: Aweti, Ikpeng, Kalapalo, Kamaiurá, Kawaiwete, Kisêdjê, Kuikuro, Matipu, Mehinako, Nahukuá, Naruvotu, Tapayuna, Trumai, Waurá, Yawalapiti and Yudja. Its conservation is under federal government management.
The latest census, conducted by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) in 2022, found that the country now has an Indigenous population of 1,694,836 (less than 1 per cent of the total Brazilian population) and 391 ethnic groups; three out of four Indigenous individuals declared their ethnic group.
Two years after the Supreme Court ruled the proposal of a time marker for demarcation of Indigenous land as unconstitutional, the National Congress is trying to reverse the scenario in a vote that could happen this month. If the time marker is approved for insertion into the Constitution, Indigenous people would only have the right to claim lands they were occupying or under dispute at the time of the current Constitution, in October 1988.
