Terra Cy'ndida: An Artistic Collaboration with the Wapichana

The video attached, titled Terra Cy´ndida, is an artwork resulting from the interaction between the author and the members of Wapichana – a Brazilian indigenous community living in Brasília. The researcher participated in a few protests and in religious manifestations organized by the indigenous people in defense of their land. There followed an artistic intervention in the form of a video-art piece. The goal of this work was to showcase different voices belonging to the same indigenous community, so mixing tradition and modernity and, consequently, presenting distinct views on similar issues. The intention of this performative action was to diminish the prejudice against indigenous groups that live in Brasília and to provide visibility for some of their matters. In this sense, this paper falls into the symposium topic: performing ethnomusicological and artistic intervention for social and political change. Brasília, capital of Brazil, is well known for its architecture designed by Oscar Niemeyer. However, just a few might know that among the modern buildings and wide avenues there is an indigenous reserve of inestimable value (cultural, religious, ecological, biological, and economic) called Santuário dos Pajés (Shrine of Shamans). Indigenous people of the Fulniô, Cariri Xocó and Wapichana ethnic groups have lived in this area since before the construction of Brasilia in 1950. However, due to real estate speculation leveraged by powerful construction companies, associated with corrupt government officials and judges, this indigenous reserve is in danger of being turned into concrete. Judicial disputes have been fought since at least 2008, when the federal government declared itself as the owner of this land and sold it to construction companies to build a new residential area. Concerned with this serious problem of the misappropriation of indigenous lands in Brazil, I intend to reflect on the ways indigenous people have found to not only make the people aware, but also to sensitize them towards their problems. The concepts of acculturation and transculturation (Ortiz, 2002) are used as a basis to reflect on the transformation that occurred with urbanized indigenous people or those indigenous people pushed to live in urban areas. Indigenous people living in the city have easy access to health and education systems, and many of them graduate and occupy the same jobs as whites. Nevertheless, they remain victims of prejudice and discrimination. The situation is complex, as it involves questions of identity, citizenship, and occupation of public space. The title of the work Terra Cy´ndida is a fusion of indigenous and Portuguese words, pointing directly to the problem of “scission” between groups that want to own the land. “Cy” is a Tupi word meaning “mother.” The term “cindida” means divided, and was chosen because depicts the political conflict about division and territorial delimitations of indigenous reserves, that is, the struggle for the Mother-Earth. I like to think this artistic intervention falls within what Martin Nakata (2007) referred to as cultural interface, meaning the space, the intersection, between systems of knowledge. Thus, the artistic work Terra Cy´ndida pinpoints the crossroads between the cultural elements of distinct socio-cultural groups living in the same environment