This Spot is Ours: Celebration and the Right of Appropriation in the Territories Affected by the Mineral Waste in Fundão, Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

Mariana, November 5th, 2015: an avalanche of mineral waste resulting from the Fundão dam rupture, under the responsibility of Samarco/Vale/BHP Billiton, reached Bento Rodrigues, Camargos, Bicas, Ponte do Gama, Paracatu de Cima, Paracatu de Baixo, Pedras and Campinas, in the municipality of Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil, as well as several other localities in the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, crossing the river Rio Doce until flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. The disaster resulted in drastic social and environmental impacts and, since then began the struggle of the affected population for due compensation and reparations, which has already lasted four years. The domination established by the Renova Foundation, created by the companies responsible for the disaster-crime, engenders in Mariana a framework of continuous violation of rights, including the right to the appropriation of the affected territories. For the affected people of Mariana, the celebrations are ways to strengthen the struggle and affective bonds between them, and with the territory. They are collective experiences and spatial practices that resist the hegemonic  model of domination related to mineral exploration in the territory and that reaffirm the sense of belonging and the desire for the reestablishment of the destroyed ways of life. From this perspective, a celebration is recognized as an instrument of resistance and struggle for the right to the appropriation of the affected territories of Mariana in everyday life.