PLANTING A LIVING SCHOOL
Dialogues with jandaíra, tubi, jataí and the Potiguara people
Cristine Takuá
10 April 2025
Photo: Cristine Takuá
******Poetics of Resistance******
“What's the use in learning the grammar of languages if you don't know the mysteries of nature”
Romildo Potiguara
Walking through Potiguara lands at the beginning of February, I could feel the pulse of the beauty that lies in the universe of resisting to exist.
It is incredible to see the strength that blossoms in those who want to awaken, to stir a memory, just as we felt and experienced with the Potiguara people, who are enthusiastically practising their native Tupi language, even though many reported that this knowledge was no longer alive among them. In the songs, studies and dreams of some young Potiguara, the language is being awakened more and more every day. And through this dream, the coordinator of the Guarani Living School brought the poetic resistance of the Guarani language, which also has its origins in the Tupi language. We went with him, in the project conceived by the Selvagem Association, the Living Schools and researchers supported by Instituto Serrapilheira, to experience and participate in this exciting exchange.
“Planting a Living School” was the name of the project we came up with to weave this resistance together in a stronger way. There, we walked among bees, cashews, jackfruit, we ate tapioca and lots of fish. We met some wise men and women who told us old stories and celebrated our meeting with beautiful songs.
Photo: Carlos Papá
Meeting Master Iolanda Potiguara was very emotional, as I had met her in Acre in Ashaninka territory in 2022 during the indigenous ayahuasca conference. I identified a lot with her, with her struggle, her dreams and her words like arrows that fly far and wide, demanding an indigenous school education that respects the way of being in the territory of each people. In the meeting we had with her at the Pedro Poti School, she left her message, telling everyone off so they pay attention and act in an affectionate way towards the children and young people. She has been involved in the fight for indigenous school education for many years and has been dreaming of transforming her territory into a practice that is truly orientated towards the practices of living schools.
One morning we went to visit the Paraíba Mel Association and there we found lots of bees of various species, we visited the garden of Joana, a Potiguara elder who looks after the association, and is also a midwife, a root specialist and a great connoisseur of the science of the forest. Walking through the yard, I was baptised by a bee with a sting in my eyes, and I felt that that sign, which hurt and ran through my whole body, was telling me something, like a code, a call to concentrate on the power that this encounter was revealing to us.
Photos: Anna Dantes and Cristine Takuá
I left there and spent the day meditating on time and the mysteries of life. About education, colonisation and the transformations driven by the Living Schools. Selvagem became a portal in my life, because for years I had been embroidering, weaving considerations, reflections on decolonial epistemologies and suddenly I found myself immersed in a collective that, like little ants, sows this pulse in its own way, with charm and beauty.
Time, time time...
Time is a great teacher, master of the days and of ancestral knowledge. Life is full of codes and information that guide and lead us on our journey. Within the processes of resistance we can see a pulse of dreams and memories being awakened, through partnerships and a network of affection and care that is being woven with colourful and very strong ‘threads’.
As much as illness and human contradiction insist on disturbing our pace, we feel that we are prepared to continue poeticising knowledge at each new dawn. From the sowing of the Living Schools, we are strengthening and encouraging each other to continue blowing resistance in the form of love. And through other creative and educational processes we are finding a breath for the soul and a break from the harshness of everyday situations that often insist on poking us.
School education is present in every corner of the world and, as a result, ancient cultures are being crossed and moulded by the imposition of a mental monoculture that doesn't respect the time of things. The standardisation of a curriculum that prioritises theories disconnected from life, from the forest and the spirits is too much violence for people from very ancient cultures who have always had their own ways of transmitting knowledge and doing things. Much of the knowledge that is fundamental to life has ceased to be practised and their memories have been numbed by this centuries-long imposition. Since catechisation, then military schools and today the encouragement of mechanistic and technologised education.
The fact that children all over the world no longer play with the earth, climb trees and feel the codes that time teaches them makes them fragile and unprepared to deal with life's situations. No people survive on letters and numbers! We need to get to know the plants and listen to their messages, listen to the trees, the waves of the sea, the course of the rivers, the mountains, the thunder and the wind.
Photos: Anna Dantes and Cristine Takuá
That's why I dream of more and more living schools blossoming in the territories, so that children can have the freedom to live in peace, without being pressured to say what they want to be when they grow up at a time when they are still learning to decipher the codes that nature has. Imagine everyone dreaming of being an elder, not just a doctor or something that carries the weight of a degree. Imagine people dreaming of being an elder who respects all forms of life, walking serenely to the beat of Good Living.
The forest is home to many creative beings. The guardian spirits of everything that inhabits the forest are watching us and they're angry at our clumsy way of walking.
"RESISTANCE"
(Ezequiel Potiguara)
Who am I?
I am the son of those you killed,
The last of those you buried,
The owner of the land you stole,
The one who bears the Tupi name on his back.
With which daring do you ask?
What do you mean, who am I?!
It's me, the one you stole freedom from,
The song, the cry and the resistance of those you killed.
Vivo vivendo naqueles que vivem em mim…
I am true, I am a warrior, I am the last of the Tupis.
The one who doesn't fear death,
Who doesn't mourn his fortune,
Something I've never had.
I am a true warrior,
Resistance without retreat,
I fight and yell: demarcate what is mine!
Or rather, give it back to me!
What do you mean, who am I?!
Have you forgotten that the kings of this land had children?
Don't be scared!
I am the heir!
I am here, with my crown of feathers,
My crosier is my bow,
My strength is Jurema,
But if you want to know my name
I'll tell you: my name is Resistance!
* * *
Tupi Potiguara version
NHERANA
“Abápe endé?” eré!?
Nde remiîukapûera ra’yra ixé.
Nde remitymbûera takypûerixûara ixé.
Kó yby nde mondarõagûera îara ixé.
O aséî o era “Tupi” rerasoara ixé.
Nde nhe’ẽmemûã serã, emonã eporandupa?
Marã serã “Abápe endé?” eré?!?
Ixé nhẽ, abá i pukusamba’ee’ymamo sekó nde mondarõagûera.
Nde remiîukapûera nhe’engasaba, i xapukaîa, i nherana.
Aîkobé xe pupé oîkobéba’e pupé gûitekobébo…
Supi anhe’eng, kyre’ymbaba ixé, Tupi takypûerixûara ixé.
Te’õ suí osykyîee’ymba’e
Nd’oîmoasyî o ekoaba,
Tekokatu nd’aîporará-angáî.
Kyre’ymbabeté ixé.
Osyîe’yma nherana.
Amaramonhang, gûixapukaîa, “Peîkuapamoĩn xe resendûara!” gûiîabo…
Tó, “Peroîebyr ixébe!”-te gûiîábo!
Marã serã “Abápe endé?” eré?!?
Nde resaraî serã morubixarûera kó tetamendûara ta’yra suí?
Nde putupab umẽ, anheté, i mba’epûeryîara ixé.
Aîkó iké, xe akanga asoîaba gûyrá ragûera resé,
Xe ybyra’ĩ xe ybyrapara,
Xe pyatã Îurema,
A’ete, endé xe rera kuapotárememo,
Aîmombe’umo: Xe rera “Nherana”.
Photo: Alice Faria
Photo: Miguel Mendonça
Planting a Potiguara Living School: intercultural dialogues connecting ecology and the revitalisation of the original language is the name of the project proposed to the Serrapilheira Institute's internal call. The aim is of stimulating collaborations between scientists and science communicators linked to the institute's network of supporters. Developed by Rafael Raimundo and Victor Felix in conjunction with the Selvagem Association, the proposal envisages the production of science communication and education materials through workshops that structure the creation of a Potiguara Living School, inspired by similar initiatives for strengthening indigenous knowledge called Living Schools, a movement promoted by the Selvagem Association.