Threats to the Gavião indigenous territory (PA): Solastalgia and other psychotherapeutic emotions

Amerindian conceptions of mental health can be radically different from traditions of European origin. We investigated the conceptions of mental health and its relationship with the land for the indigenous Gavião peoples (kyikatejê, parkatejê, and akrãtikatêjê) living in the Mãe Maria Indigenous Land (Pará State, Brazil). Through structured interviews with six different indigenous individuals, an inseparable relationship was identified between somatic and mental health in Gavião thinking, and a conception of territory crossed by symbolic and inter-subjective dimensions. The integrality of the territory, understood as this territoriality-alterity in Gavião cosmopolitics, also explains the existential relationship between territory and health. The Mãe Maria Indigenous Land is constantly harassed by the management practices of the farms around it, as well as by the pressure on its territory caused by infrastructure works (BR-222 highway, Carajás railroad, and Eletronorte power transmission lines). In this context, the degradation of the territory is perceived as damage to the very health of the peoples who live there, representing a “psychoterratic state” of solastalgia. The example of the Gavião peoples of the Mãe Maria Indigenous Land draws attention to the need for indigenous health policies - especially in the field of mental health - to take into account the integrality of the territory and the conceptions of mental health of the peoples involved.