After the success of the World Cup, Brazil has established itself as home to major sporting events. The next challenge now will be carrying out the World Indigenous Games (JMI), to be held for the first time in September 2015 in Palmas, Tocantins, with the presence of more than two thousand athletes from 30 countries. To increase the dissemination of the Games, the president of Brazilian Tourism Board (Embratur) met last week with the Mayor of Palmas, Carlos Amastha, to discuss promotion of JMI during Embratur’s activities abroad.
“Hosting the World Indigenous Games in Brazil is an opportunity to show the world the diversity of our country, in addition to valuing the cultural richness of the indigenouspeoples and promoting other sectors like Ecotourism and Adventure Tourism,” said Vicente Neto, president of Embratur.
Embratur began promoting the World Indigenous Games during the World Travel Mart, which took place last week in London and included about 50 thousand visitors. In addition, embratur will incorporate the event into other markets and events taking place until the start of JMI in September 2015. “The support of Embratur is critical to the success of the Games. The state of Tocantins has enormous tourism potentialthat we need to promote, besides the already known Jalapão and crafts with golden grass. We have numerous cities and historical sites to adventure tourism, “said the mayor of Palmas, Carlos Amastha.
With the motto “In 2015, we are all Natives”, the capital of Tocantins is preparing to welcome athletes from dozens of ethnic groups from all over the world. The Special Secretariat for World Indigenous Games was created and will be responsible for the overall organization of the event. The head of the organization, HectorFranco, said the completion of projects and the development of construction of structures to host the Games will take place within the established period.
In addition to the indigenous people of the Americas, there will also be participants from Australia, Japan, Norway, Russia, China and the Philippines. There will be 22 ethnic groups from Brazil participating in the competition. Only in Tocantins, there are sevenethnic groups with a population of approximately 10,000 people. Archery, spear throwing, tug of war, rustic speed race (100m), traditional rustic canoeing, log races, wrestling matches, football, xikunahati (head football), swimming and athletics are among the competitions which will take place in Palmas.
Games of Indigenous Peoples emerged in Brazil in 1996 in Goiania, conducted by Intertribal Committee Memory and Indigenous Science, with support from the Federal Government. Since then, 13 national editions already occurred. Now will be the first time the Gameswill be global. According to Mayor Carlos Amastha, the decision to hold theWorld Indigenous Games in Palmas happened during a meeting held at the United Nations Intertribal Committee that endorsed the choice.
