“To defend my territory, I become Enxu”

About the struggle of women in defense of the traditional fishing territory of Enxu Queimado – RN

Abstract

This papper is part of my master's thesis research, in which I sought to reflect on the role played by a group of women, artisanal fisherwomen, who initially organized themselves to provide professional training so that women in the community could gain financial autonomy from based on solidary and sustainable economy, but who, faced with a territorial conflict, were at the forefront of the battle in defense of the territory of their traditional fishing community, which was threatened by real estate speculation when an Italian claimed to have bought 184,000 hectares from the community. We used the ethnographic method of participant observation, with which I sought, in everyday life and in the political struggle, to understand the identity and belonging of the community. We found, through the rescue of memories and the narrative of the origin of the settlement in the 1920s, when a flood caused the residents of Canto de Baixo to move to the beach of Enxu Queimado, what the women were already protagonists in the care and survival of the community. In addition, they were already recognized as fishermen and not mere helpers as was common in that period.