A public hearing in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in the Alto Rio Negro region of the Amazon, brought together some 300 people to address alcohol harm in a municipality where the great majority of residents are Indigenous. Court officials reported that alcohol is present in almost every domestic violence case they handle, and the hearing carried forward an agenda built over several years by Indigenous women and young people of the Rio Negro.

Public Hearing Discusses the Impacts of Excessive Alcohol Use in São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM)”

Instituto Socioambiental reports:

“Around 300 people – Indigenous leaders, teachers, students, representatives of public bodies, civil society organisations and residents of different parts of São Gabriel da Cachoeira – took part last Thursday in a public hearing on the abusive use of alcohol and its impacts in the municipality.

“The public hearing in São Gabriel da Cachoeira continues and strengthens a mobilisation already built by Indigenous women and young people of the Rio Negro who, over recent years, have promoted debates, training and care strategies based on local knowledge.”

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Judge Manoel Átila Autran Nunes, head of the district’s single court, said every domestic violence case he tried in one recent month was related to alcohol use, and 95% during the week of the hearing itself. Public defender Daiane Ayumi Kassada reported that almost all cases reaching her office in São Gabriel da Cachoeira are connected in some way to alcohol use. Valmir Delgado, who coordinates the Alto Rio Negro Special Indigenous Health District, described a large increase in alcohol entering and being used in communities, and made the case that people who need care should receive follow-up and treatment rather than being left on their own.

Indigenous women and young people of the Rio Negro have spent years organising debates, training and care strategies drawn from local knowledge. At the Acampamento Terra Livre in Brasília, leaders of the Department of Indigenous Women and the Department of Adolescents and Young People of the Federation of Indigenous Organisations of the Rio Negro (Foirn), working with the Instituto Socioambiental, brought their findings on rising alcohol harm to federal ministries and made concrete proposals:

  • a dedicated policy of prevention, care and follow-up for Indigenous peoples;
  • stronger information systems on alcohol harm;
  • intercultural training for health professionals; and
  • a psychosocial care centre for alcohol and other drugs in São Gabriel da Cachoeira.

Dulce Morais, gender adviser at ISA, said the impacts “fall disproportionately on those already in greater vulnerability, such as women, children and young people”, and called for responses across sectors that are sensitive to the social and cultural dynamics of the municipality. That analysis matches the international evidence on alcohol policy as gender-based violence prevention, and on alcohol as an obstacle to development in Brazil.

In Mexico, a comparable debate has framed alcohol harm in Indigenous communities as a question of availability and normalisation shaped by alcohol companies – in some regions of the country alcohol is easier to obtain than drinking water.

The district court issued an order during the hearing establishing prevention, guidance and communication activities on alcohol across two tracks:

  1. one for the town, focused on protecting children and adolescents from alcohol sales, and
  2. one for Indigenous lands and communities, addressing the entry and distribution of alcohol while respecting the autonomy, social organisation and cultural specificities of Indigenous peoples.

The order provides for educational campaigns in Portuguese and in the Indigenous languages used in the municipality, and strengthens an intersectoral programme to prevent alcohol use among children and adolescents. The communities named as most affected, Pari Cachoeira and Iauaretê, are border regions through which alcohol reaches the territories.

Indigenous-led advocacy has successfully changed decisions about alcohol availability in other parts of the world: in Australia’s Northern Territory, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal organisations campaigned successfully against a plan to build an alcohol megastore near Aboriginal communities in Darwin.