LETTER TO CRISTINE TAKUÁ
Earth in our hands and celebration in our eyes
Veronica Pinheiro
21 de outubro de 2024
Greetings, dear Cris.
Your words always arrive at dawn. With them, my eyes long to be the sea and they water while dancing among your "delicating" words. I salute the guardian spirits of the beings who keep you on a good path.
It's been raining here for days. I've heard some humans complaining about the rain; the birds, however, are so happy that they sing all day long. Along with the plants in the backyard, they remind me that the Earth can also play with the sky. With the birds I've learnt to celebrate the days. At home I've learnt to celebrate the cycles.
Listening to your talk about the consecration of Ka'a reminds me of the festivities back home. The festivities would bring the whole community together and my family would take part in all the processes of the festivities. From sewing the clothes to preparing the food; from organising the party to the day's music. At the party, some would prepare instruments and play. Everything was set up with a lot of concentration and prayers. The festivity was a reaffirmation of our way of life. My mother sewed for the whole community, my father's father and my father prepared instruments for the whole community. Prayers, blessings and food were meant for the whole community. Nowadays, around here, everything is sold. From clothes to instruments, from food to party tickets.
We are working to awaken the memory of collective strength among the children. Amongst many things, there will also be a party. Since October 3rd, we've been celebrating the lives of the school's children through workshops, musical performances, a book launch, outings and planting activities.
Dear friend, it seems that wind's voice has once again spoken to the residents of Complexo da Pedreira. Otávio and his boys, Davi and Marcos, have joined us. Otávio and his “Magic Formula for Peace” have scared hunger away from dozens of families. Otávio's secret is only in the name of the project he leads, because he shares everything generously with everyone who approaches him.
Remember when I said that there was a strip of green between Pedreira's complex of favelas that was taken care of by a man? I found the guardian of that swidden. In a region with the second lowest human development index in the city of Rio de Janeiro, there is a man who is full of green. Soil-plant-man suspended and hidden in the green on the edge of the asphalt. While food insecurity circulates daily among the local population, Otávio, who has reconnected with the land, takes care of the earth and is taken care of by the earth.
I continue to believe that greening, growing trees, activating and awakening memories is a job for a community. In Brazil, only 34.5 per cent of municipal schools have a green area, and the majority of schools with a green area have more grass than vegetation. Otávio, a collective man, has a daily relationship with the earth and agreed to dream and work with us and the children in the school yard. Our dream for the school is the same as Isael Maxakali's:Nosso sonho é pegar a terra e recuperar. Porque ela precisa ser curada, precisa de tratamento. Porque a terra é viva. Terra fala, terra olha a gente e terra grita. (…) Por isso que nós queremos reflorestar".
Tayana and Gerrie are also in this canoe full of seeds. While Otávio teaches how to plant in delimited areas, Tayana and Gerrie plant out with the children in the backyard. As a result, we already have a vegetable garden and many sown areas around the school. In this movement to reconnect with the earth, I can see the joy in the children's eyes. The little ones, aged seven, bring extra clothes in their backpacks, waiting for the time to go to the swidden-backyard, the future little forest-school. There is also celebration in Ivone's eyes, a school employee and resident of the community, who gets emotional when she sees the fertile soil, seeds and seedlings arrive. Ivone also listened to wind's voice and, with her memories of home awakened, she has been helping us to plant and look after the backyard.
The backyard is becoming a school within the school. In it, learning lies in the relationships between humans and non-humans. We have gained a classroom under the shade of a leafy Yellow Siris. All our planting movements have been accompanied by a hummingbird that sings and observes us from many angles.
Our days have been like this: earth in our hands and celebration in our eyes, to the sound of birds. The children are learning with their hands and are creating memories in their bodies together with the body of the earth. The celebration in the children's eyes has brought the school community together and my heart has been strengthened by this.
I bid you farewell, my dear teacher, wishing that birds tell you secrets.
And that the enchanted beings guard your paths.
Awrê.
________________
Otávio Souza, creator of the Magic Formula for Peace project, started as a self-provisioning strategy for residents who became more impoverished during the 2020 pandemic. Like Otávio, many started picking up discarded food from CEASA Rio bins; however, together with his friend Matheus de Souza, he decided to focus on the land and start planting on a plot within the favela. Today, as well as learning how to look after the land, the project has helped young people gain access to an income and fresh food.
Tayana Simões, biologist and environmental educator.
Gerrie Schrik is an educator and translator, always hiking, a birdwatcher and storyteller, who loves reading and art. She lives in a small agroforest on the edge of a stream in the Piracicaba River basin. She has been guiding and technically organising the planting activities at the school.