CARTA A CRISTINE TAKUÁ
Escolas da vida
Veronica Pinheiro
14 de outubro de 2024
Jenipapo-Kanindé children's choir, at Tapera das Artes
My dear teacher,
I bring good news from the Jenipapo-Kanindé lands. On the banks of the Enchanted Lagoon I personally met Viviane and Adelsin, and yes, they are very special. The Good Waters brought us here. Here, dreams and life coexist. The children sing, the young people dream and the teachers smile.
Viviane and Adelsin told me about the Casinhas de Cultura [Culture Little Houses] and how they got to know Tapera das Artes, a ‘School of Life’ that, through music and the arts, promotes enchantment and significant changes in children's lives.
We spent two days meeting teachers, educators, artists and children. There were many of us, but at times I had the feeling that we were one. Joy and love are forces that truly move the present day, while at the same time they heal the yesterday and prepare the morrow. Here I have witnessed beautiful movements of confluence and heard many stories of memories awakening. From lace to singing, ceramics to the bamboo fife, the strengthening of the territory dialogues directly with intergenerational relations.
Here I've shared a little of our journey and told you about how we've been paddling the canoe together with Selvagem Cycle. I talked about the Living Schools and that I only came because you built the path. I'm very moved by the connections that have been made. I'm coming back stronger and believing that dialogue with teachers and schools is a possible path on this journey of re-enchantment. School education is often a process of docilising bodies and inhibiting freedom of thought. But here in Aquiraz I have met teachers from the land, masters who have neither lost their connection with the territory nor with natural life. We're on the second day of the meeting and the same 400 teachers from yesterday are here today to think about how not to let the curriculum take away children's relationship of love towards life.
The Pacoti River and the Catú River were also brought into the conversation. Because we have lost our connection with nature, we are forced to outsource natural learning relationships. The children of Aquiraz have less and less connection with the rivers, and many of them now only learn to swim if their families have money to pay for swimming lessons. What used to be a relationship between child and river, a natural learning relationship, is now a commercial relationship between student and swimming instructor. It was lovely to hear that the teachers in Aquiraz acknowledge that the waters are teachers.
It's beautiful to know that there are Living Schools and Schools of Life; culture points and culture houses; teachers who dream and dreamers who accomplish things. It's so beautiful to feel that we can continue confluencing like the rivers of Aquiraz. As my teacher, Nego Bispo, used to say: ‘A river doesn't stop being a river because it confluences with another river; on the contrary, it turns into itself plus other rivers, it becomes stronger.
I leave these Jenipapo-Kanindé lands in a spiritful state and strengthened by the songs of the Jenipapo-Kanindé children. Surrounded by the sound of the children's singing, Silvia's blessings and ceramic whistles made at Tapera das Artes, I say goodbye.
See you on Saturday, my teacher.
From left to right: Veronica Pinheiro, Viviane Fontes, Adelsin, Lucilene Silva