Helping Indigenous Paraguayans with Food Security
Behind the Lens: Respecting traditions
Christian Mejía-Acosta is a freelance video producer based in Quito, Ecuador, who has covered a number of stories, including an earthquake in Peru and the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda. He spoke to UNDP about his experiences filming a UNDP project that is working with the Mbaya Guaraní people of Paraguay.
"I came to Paraguay to do a story on food security and indigenous culture for UNDP. These indigenous communities are living in a very complicated situation and in extreme poverty and every day they are seeing their land and their culture reduced by the outside world. UNDP is helping them with strategies and technical assistance so that they can farm their lands better, especially through diversification of crops, but in a way that stays true to their cultural traditions. Another goal is to help these groups be able to produce enough food and crops not just to eat on a daily basis but to make money.
It took six hours by jeep from the capital city to get to the lands where this community lives, which left us only two days to shoot. During the trip out there, the UNDP programme officers stressed the importance of obeying the community’s social rules. When we got close, we saw that someone had cut a tree down and put it in the road so that no one could just drive into their community and disturb them. So we had to leave the jeep behind. I also had to leave the camera and equipment behind because first I had to go down and greet everyone. We sat in a circle for two hours with the village leaders, passing around yerba maté (a traditional Paraguayan drink) and talking, before they gave me permission to shoot. I was worrying we wouldn’t have time to do this but once I got their permission the entire community was very cooperative. I had permission to go everywhere and speak to everyone, the elderly, the kids; I had access to every corner and I had access to every house. It ended up being a good investment in time.
This community traditionally practices minga, which is a form of social behavior where everyone works collectively and shares in the benefit of their work. I remember during my interview with the community leader that he was always talking about the children, that the best crops and the best fields were all for the children. All these people want is a bit of peace in the one place they have left to live, so it was tough for me to go there with my camera and disturb them. But the reason they finally agreed to be filmed is we explained that we wanted to show the world how they are working through their situation and not running away because they want better for their children and for themselves."