Iglesia Vs aboriginals: a nun barricaded herself in a property that the government ceded to the native peoples

07/19/2021 5:29 PM

• Clarín.com

• Zonal

Updated 07/19/2021 5:29 PM

The members of the

Punta Querandí Indigenous Community

were denounced by a conservative nun for having carried out "a pagan ritual" when they performed a traditional ceremony within their territory.

The incident occurred in the town of

Dique Luján

,

Tigre district

, North Zone of Greater Buenos Aires.

The property in question has been inhabited by families

descended from native peoples

since 2004, when the first ancestral archaeological remains were found in the place, and the Punta Querandí Community began to form.

It is about two hectares, surrounded by

private neighborhoods

, which were the center of a long conflict between the Municipality of Julio Zamora and the construction company EIDICO, which claimed ownership of the place.

At the end of 2020, after several legal mishaps, the

land was transferred by the authorities of the Municipality of Tigre to the indigenous community

, and it was given the character of

"Community property".

Even so, the problems with neighbors and entities that resist the community to develop its activities and inhabit the place continue.

'Sahumada' carried out by the Community of Punta Querandi Courtesy: Omar Bogado

On July 4, the members of Punta Querandí, with Kolla, Qom and Guaraní identities, denounced that a nun attacked them when they were performing a ceremony within the limits of their territory.

The woman rebuked

Reinaldo Roa,

Head of the Punta Querandí Council of Elders, who carried out the activity together with his companions.

As their spokespersons explained to

Clarín

, the ceremony consisted “simply of touring the entire property throughout its two hectares, while a 'sahumada' was carried out. This is done to strengthen the territory and the community; to stay together, and so that nothing bad happens in our place. "

The complaining nun is in a

box

of the construction company with whom they remain in conflict.

When the group passed near her, she went out to reprimand them.

"The Municipality is going to have to kick me out," they affirm that he shouted at them as a sign of resistance, implying that he was "entrenched" in the place that is in the process of handing over the Commune to families descended from native peoples.

Besides, I treat them as

"trout Indians"

and question the value of "the little bones that were there" saying that "they were not worth anything." 

Box where the nun resides within the Punta Querandi property.

Courtesy: Leo Crovetto.

According to sources close to Punta Querandí, in the private neighborhood of

San Benito

, one of those bordering the property and owned by the construction company EIDICO, there is an ultra-conservative church known as the 

Institute of the Incarnate Word.

Neighbors from the surrounding towns of Tigre attend there, and this is where the woman is believed to belong.

"At first we thought he was from 

Opus Dei

, but later we found out that he belongs to this even more conservative institution," they say from Punta Querandí.

And they add: "We have been fighting here for more than fifteen years to preserve customs in the territory against the disputes of the private neighborhoods that surround us and the churches they have."

“Before, when the Municipality had not yet decided that they would give us the property, the construction company, together with this religious institution, justified their presence based on the

territorial conflict.

And there was always a person in the box within our lot.

Before the nun, there was a man who worked as security and responded to the construction company, "explain the spokesmen of the indigenous community.

'Sahumada' performed by the members of Punta Querandi. Courtesy: Omar Bogado.

The first conflicts with the religious group date back to

2016

when a group of practitioners demolished, on two separate occasions,

the construction of a temple of the Guaraní culture.

After these events, the nun was permanently installed, who repeatedly made complaints to the police.

The troops went to the place and verified that everything was in order.

"Currently, the nun does not spend all day in the box. We see her from time to time. But when we pass by, because it is our place, she begins to scream, to attack us and wants us to leave by force. They do not accept that we are there, nor do we do what belongs to us, "they explain. 

The land in question is in the

process of being transferred.

In the last session of 2020, the Deliberative Council of Tigre approved the ordinance that validated the agreement between the Indigenous Community and the mayor of Julio Zamora, to establish a

Community Property Agreement.

 For the moment, the Municipality promised to resolve the conflict as soon as possible.

'Sahumada' performed by the members of Punta Querandi. Courtesy: Omar Bogado.

The antecedents of the conflict.

The bidding for the property dates back to 2004, before the appearance of ancestral archaeological remains in the Paraje Punta Canal, a place surrounded by real estate developments, where the Punta Querandí Indigenous Community had begun to be established, made up of families of native peoples.

This is how an extensive legal battle began as the real estate developer wanted to convert Punta Querandí into a mooring for yachts at the Villa Nueva nautical complex.

In 2017, the developer EIDICO even started an eviction lawsuit against the indigenous community.

However, at the end of 2019, the company disposed of the plot in conflict and handed it over to the Municipality.

The next step was the agreement between Punta Querandí and the Municipality of Tigre, which was announced in February 2020 but was only finalized on November 16 and then endorsed by the Deliberative Council.

That text indicates that “a pre-existing reality institutionally recognized by this Municipality through Decree 259/2018” is regularized, which declared the activities carried out by Punta Querandí of legislative interest.

Look also

They recognized the ownership of land in Tigre to indigenous peoples

They restore skeletons to the Querandí people so that they can bury their ancestors again