International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples highlights the fight against prejudice and silenced histories

“This day reminds our nation to fight prejudice and racism, and also to not kill and silence our stories, which come from the strength of our ancestry, because we are the resistance,” says Andressa Apinajé, a student who is doing a professional master’s in cultural heritage and social projects at Fundação Getulio Vargas’ School of Social Sciences (FGV CPDOC). As Brazil celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day, FGV News interviewed Apinajé, together with Celso Castro, the school’s dean, to find out how social interactions regarding this subject can materialize. Today, April 19, Apinajé describes the struggle to recognize and appreciate traditional knowledge, respect native cultures and languages, and uphold native peoples’ rights. “This day reminds our nation to fight prejudice and racism, and also to not kill and silence our stories, which come from the strength of our ancestry, because we are the resistance. As long as we native peoples exist, we will be a song of strength, like a maraca [an indigenous musical instrument], the sound of freedom, the black of the jenipapo fruit, the red of the urucum fruit. We will be the colors of resistance and the mother tongue, our essence. I conclude by saying that as long as there is culture, there will be resistance, and as long as there is strength in song and dance, there will be hope, because that is our only weapon,” she says. Apinajéis participating in a project called “Indigenous Document Heritage: Collaborative Work Between FGV CPDOC and the Apinajé People,” which arose after the school’s dean carried out an oral history interview in late 2021 with anthropologist Roberto DaMatta. Following this interview, DaMatta offered to donate his personal archives regarding the Apinajé people to FGV CPDOC. Change from Indian Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day According to Celso Castro, FGV CPDOC’s dean, April 19 was declared to be “American Indian Day” at the first Inter-American Indigenous Peoples Congress, held in 1940 in Mexico and attended by representatives of 19 countries, including Brazil, and members of many native peoples. In Brazil, “Indian Day” was officially created by Executive Order 5,540 of June 2, 1943. It was also on this day, in 1953, that the Indian Museum was opened in Rio de Janeiro. In 2022, Law 14,402 of July 8 revoked the 1943 executive order and renamed the day “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” also celebrated on April 19. The idea was to maintain the long-standing date but to update the name, replacing “Indian” (based on the mistaken assumption by European sailors in the early 16th century, who thought they had arrived in Asia) with “Indigenous Peoples,” which more accurately describes people who lived in the Americas before the Europeans arrived. About the Indigenous Document Heritage Project This project came about after Celso Castro conducted an oral history interview with anthropologist Roberto DaMatta at the end of 2021. The interview led to the possibility of FGV CPDOC receiving his personal archives. He was 85 and thought it was time to give a permanent home to the documents he had accumulated during his academic career. He was already familiar with the work of FGV CPDOC and received encouragement from other people who knew about the school, some of whom had also donated their archives to it. When he donated his personal archives to FGV CPDOC in 2022, the school noticed that they included many photographs taken by DaMatta during his ethnographic research periods among the Apinajé indigenous people in 1962 and 1970, for his doctoral dissertation. There are around 3,000 photos, as well as dozens of cassette recordings and at least one Super-8 film made by the anthropologist. It was then that the Apinajé people themselves offered to contribute to organizing this material. Read the full interview below. How is the project going now? Celso Castro – It is developing in a very intense and rewarding way, both for us and for the Apinajé people. Knowledge of the material we received in our archives and the idea of collaborative work were enthusiastically welcomed by the indigenous people from the outset. The project involves organizing a very rich set of historical and cultural heritage of the Apinajé people, and they also saw collaboration with FGV as an exceptional opportunity to have a history of their people told by the Apinajé themselves, leading to greater recognition and appreciation of their culture. How important is it for the school to develop a project like this? Celso Castro – It’s a huge learning experience in many ways. Of course, we have the experience of collaboratively organizing a rich collection, having to establish common understandings, but also preserving different rationales for organizing this collection. In addition, as part of the project, three Apinajé students joined our Professional Master’s in Cultural Heritage and Social Projects Program at FGV CPDOC, to dedicate themselves to the project. In the second semester of 2023, we also offered a course called “The Apinajé Language, Culture and Society” to our undergraduate and graduate students,taught by two indigenous professors. Finally, we arranged for Roberto DaMatta to return to the Apinajé people’s land after 45 years. It was an emotional reunion, and we’ve just produced an hour-long documentary about it. During that visit, I was also “baptized” Pẽpnhõrik and I became part of the Apinajé family. We will return to the villages at the end of May 2024, where an important ritual event will take place. So, I can say that the project has been very innovative and a great institutional learning experience, integrating FGV CPDOC’s three activities: research, documentation and teaching. As a student on the Professional Master’s in Cultural Heritage and Social Projects Program, what has your experience been like? Andressa Apinajé – Being a student at FGV CPDOC on the Professional Master’s in Cultural Heritage and Social Projects Program has been a unique experience, as the course is providing me with new knowledge and new learning opportunities within the field of research. The whole program is qualifying me to meet its requirements, and of course I can’t fail to mention the program’s professors and the entire CPDOC team for their commitment and responsibility in contributing their knowledge. Would you like to highlight any aspects of the program? Andressa Apinajé – In particular, an extremely important person, Professor Celso Castro (called Pẽpnhõrik by the Apinajé people), enabled this great opportunity to begin, and he made us believe that we can still keep the roots and stories of our Panhĩ Apinajé people alive within these technologies. I’m also grateful to FGV CPDOC for respecting and welcoming the Panhĩ Apinajé people, for bestowing the people with a plaque of honor, and for giving me the opportunity to collaborate on this project. I have enjoyed getting to know the Archive Center, where all the Panhĩ Apinajé people’s archives are located. And, of course, it was wonderful to take part in the meeting that all the Panhĩ Apinajé people had been waiting for: the meeting with anthropologist Roberto DaMatta (Tekator), which was arranged by the school. I also had the unique experience of working at FGV on its social sciences undergraduate program, teaching a course called “The Panhĩ/Apinajé Language, Culture and Society.” To find out more about FGV CPDOC, visit its website.