The islanders of the middle doce river:

life, resistance and recognition in the midst of the samarco crime disaster

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2026/98422

This article analyzes the struggle for rights of the islanders of the Middle Doce River, affected in 2015 by the collapse of the Fundão tailings dam – owned by the mining companies Samarco/Vale/BHP. The main objective is to describe their ways of life and specific territoriality, understanding how they collectively mobilize for recognition as Traditional Peoples and Communities and for their own reparation rights amidst the disaster-crime. To this end, we frequented the islands of the Doce River and the mobilization meetings, in an ethnographic study conducted between May 2023 and February 2025, in the region of Governador Valadares (MG). In addition to participant observation and field notes, we conducted semi-structured interviews with the islanders. The results reveal that, to date, the monetary compensation offered has been insufficient to repair the damages they have reported. Because it disregarded central aspects of daily life along the riverbanks: the relationships and meanings constructed along the river and the islands; and the effects of the violent presence of mining waste throughout the riverside territory. In response, the islanders mobilized for their rights. They insist on the care, work, and bonds of reciprocity that sustain their ways of life in order to, from these meanings, politicize the reparation of the Doce River and defend their territory.