WAYS OF KNOWING
Monthly meetings to reflect on traditional knowledge, the relationship between living beings, and pathways for education to include more pluriversal narratives. The actions involve people of all ages and backgrounds, creating dialogues with and for children, youth, and adults.
Follow the upcoming meetings on the Selvagem Calendar.
The Ways of Knowing Group is coordinated by Cristine Takuá and Veronica Pinheiro.
Alongside the meetings, we also have the Ways of Knowing Diary, a weekly account of Cris Takuá's journeys and learnings in her dialogue with the Living Schools, and Veronica's activation of Selvagem content at the Casa das Crianças (Professor Escragnolle Dória Municipal School) in Rio de Janeiro.
CRISTINE TAKUÁ
Cristine Takuá is a Brazilian writer, artisan, decolonial theorist, activist and a teacher from the Maxakali people. She has a degree in Philosophy from Unesp was a teacher for twelve years at the Txeru Ba’e Kuai’ Indigenous Public School. Currently, she coordinates the Escolas Vivas [Living Schools] and is a member of Selvagem. She lives in the Ribeirão Silveira Indigenous Land, located in the municipalities of Bertioga and São Sebastião, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. integrante do Selvagem, ciclo de estudos sobre a vida. Vive na Terra Indígena Ribeirão Silveira, localizada na divisa dos municípios de Bertioga e São Sebastião.
VERONICA PINHEIRO
Veronica Pinheiro is a brincante artist, a teacher in the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Public School Network, and a researcher on art education for ethnic-racial relations as a master's student in the Graduate Program in Arts at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). She has been part of the Selvagem team since 2023, coordinating activities with and for children.
ACTIVITIES
Meetings with children in schools, museums, quilombos and villages to share and build memories.
Pedagogy of the Waters
05/06/2024
Visit to the Sugarloaf Mountain with students from the Professor Escragnolle Dória Municipal School in Rio de Janeiro. The activity was the highlight of the research that 5th-grade students and teachers conducted on the Acari River and Guanabara Bay, and it was mediated by an indigenous teacher specializing in water pedagogy.
Photos: Ericka Hoch
Immersion in the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden
07/05/2024
A trip to the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden with children from the Professor Escragnólle Doria Municipal School, located in the Complexo da Pedreira favela in Rio de Janeiro. Activities included meditation, a picnic, discussion circles, and theatrical games, as well as a visit to the Mba’é Ka’á exhibition with educators from the Botanical Garden Museum.
Photos: Ericka Hoch
Adopt a River Residency, Medellín, Colombia
06 and 07/05/2024
On May 6th and 7th, in Medellín, Colombia, Anna Dantes, Cristine Takuá, and Carlos Papá participated in the Adopt a RiverResidency as part of the Actuar por lo Vivo festival.
program. How can we be co-responsible with nature and be aware of the synergy that exists between us? At the Adopt a River Residency, the voices of children and adolescents flowed like rivers. They shared ideas, questioned themselves and us, weaved dreams, and imagined possible futures around caring for rivers, biodiversity, and understanding themselves as guardians of the present and future of nature.
A residency where we sang with love for rain, water, trees, and created inspiring actions to care for what connects us.
Learn more about the experience here.
Grandma Clay's Permission
24/01/2024
“My grandmother, the keeper of clays, we come to collect clay for our work.” These are the words spoken by the Tukano women when they gather clay. In this workshop, oriented by the ceramists Cacau Porto and Bia Jabor, there were exchanges of knowledge and practices concerning the sacred and artistic relationship with clay. It was a moment to create possibilities of intimacy with the earth. Rethinking our relationship with other beings is one approach to reducing waste in educational and artistic processes, while also broadening the opportunities for engaging with life.
One River One Bird
13/01/2024
On this day, two workshops were offered: one to gaze up at the sky and another to look down at the earth. There will be a kite-making workshop and a seed planting session, actions designed to foster dialogues between life, nature, and dreams.
Avaxi Takua: The Sacred Guarani Corn
16/12/2023
An exploration into the realms of myths and animation creation. Guided by Matheus Marins from the Animation Laboratory, children had the opportunity to create their own animations to narrate stories using experimental processes and various materials. Additionally, on the same day, there was a circle of knowledge and flavors discussing food and affection, led by Cláudia Lima.
Photos: Ericka Reis.
Maxakali Living Earth
09/12/2023
An immersive experience into the world of natural dyes, a practice that involves colouring with ancestral paints. Led by Jhon Bermond, the activity integrated memories, traditional knowledge and practices. Additionally, there were storytelling sessions, a guided tour of the exhibition, and fabric painting.
Photos: Ericka Reis.
Live living school and the guardians of the forest
02/12/2023
A creative workshop dedicated to the opening week of the VIVA VIVA ESCOLA VIVA exhibition. Through stories narrated by educator Veronica Pinheiro, the children became familiar with the myth “The Canoe of Transformation”. Following the storytelling, workshops on drawing, weaving, puppet creation, and bio-jewelry were conducted, led by ELVIRA SATERÉ MAWÉ.
Photos: Clara Almeida.
Meeting with the sea
10/11/2023
Visit to the Sugar Loaf with children from Vila Kennedy and quilombo Serra da Misericórdia. The day of activities also included a visit to the University of Rio de Janeiro and an encounter with the sea at Praia Vermelha beach in Urca.
Photos: Ju Chalita
Children of the Sun – myths in comics
from 16 September 2023 to 18 September 2023
Guarani Mbya villages – Guarani Living School and Tekoá Nhanderekoá
Thinking of movements to strengthen and pass on traditional knowledge with children in indigenous territories and traditional communities, in September 2023 we held the Children of the Sun meeting, an action by our group related to the Ayvu Pará Cycle. Over three days of activities in two Guanani Mbya villages, we brought together children, young people, teachers from the territory and leaders. The purpose of the meeting was to draw comic strips of myths and stories about the territory with the community.
The guardians of the villages' memories opened the activities by narrating myths in Guarani. In order to turn the myths into comics, workshops were needed to create scripts and drawings. Every activity was accompanied by a community leader and/or teacher, which made the meeting especially beautiful and connected to traditions.
Photos: Veronica Pinheiro
Permission for grandma Clay – clay workshop
23 August 2023
Instituto Tear, Rio de Janeiro – RJ
Casa Ateliê, Cotia – SP
Knowledge and practices exchanged concerning the sacred and artistic relationship with clay. The activity was inspired by Francy Baniwa's talk and the testimony of Dona Carol, a Baniwa ceramist, at the meeting Ore ypy rã – Time of Origin. The Children's Group organised a study in order to come up with a children's workshop structure in which clay is not seen as a raw material, but as a sacred being. "My grandmother, the owner of the clay, we've come to collect clay for our work". This is how the Tukano potters say it when they are harvesting the clay. Rethinking the relationship with beings is one of the ways of reducing the waste present in school and artistic processes, as well as expanding the possibilities of intimacy with life. The experience with educators was mediated by artist and educator Angélica Arechavala. The experience took place simultaneously in two studios and online.
Photos: Angélica Arechavala
Drawing: Angélica Arechavala
The life of the sun on earth
30/06/2023
Omved Garden, Londres
As part of the Meeting at the River, 25 symposium, 25 children from The Hightgate primary school Green Council were invited to listen to Carlos Papá, Cristine Takua and Ailton Krenak telling stories about the Sun from the perspectives of the Guarani and Krenak peoples. The purpose of the workshop was to inspire the children to bring their own interpretations of the narrative and turn them into drawings. These materials were then used to create an animation to be shared with other young people in the UK and Brazil.
Photos: Will Hearle
Cosmovisions from the Forest
13/05/2023
Museu de Arte Moderna from Rio de Janeiro (MAM-Rio)
The meeting brought together the Ore ypy rã – Tempo de Origem and Selvagem projects in a day of exhibitions and activities with songs, dances, talks and autographs of the book Umbigo do mundo, by Francy and Francisco Baniwa. Together with Chico Simões and Anita Ekman, the Children's Group offered a series of workshops on ceramic making.
Photos: Ju Chalita
The children created memories
13/04/2023
Museu da História e da Cultura Afro-Brasileira (MUHCAB), Rio de Janeiro – RJ
10/05/2023
Lanchonete Lanchonete,Rio de Janeiro – RJ
Meetings held as part of the Ancestral Memories Cycle, at the LanchoneteLanchonete and MUHCAB, between April and May 2023, in Rio de Janeiro. There was storytelling about the creation of the Sun with Francy and Francisco Baniwa, stop motion animation and poetry workshops, panel painting and telescope observation of the sky.
Photos: Mariana Rotili
The children took the floor
28/03/2023
Jangada Escola, Rio de Janeiro
First in-person meeting with children; a circle of conversations, drawings and lots of imagination. A visit to the Jangada School to listen to the children, a morning of exchanges under and about the sun. The activity was attended by the school's classes, teachers and educators.
Photos: Cout Produções
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