Indigenous Village Tekoá Paranapuã
By Vany Fila
The year 2017 I had the privilege of visiting one of the few remaining indigenous territories in Brazil. I didn’t have to make a long trip to the heart of the Amazonia, as you might be thinking. This village is right in my home town.
The Tekoá Paranapuã village is located in the Xixová Japuí State Park in the São Vicente city on the São Paulo coast. The area is preserved and the visitation to the village is controlled and only by authorization.
I had the opportunity to follow closely and photograph their way of life, their traditions, handicrafts, gastronomy and to see their children learning to use hunting equipment.
The tribe is descended from the Indians who faced the Portuguese colonization commanded by Martim Afonso de Souza in 1530. I think you can imagine what that colonisation has cost the first peoples of Brazil.
They continue to suffer nowadays in order to maintain their rights over their land. On 2004, the Tekoá Paranapuã village community reclaimed their sacred territory. The indigenous reterritorialization is based on the cosmologies of the Guarani Mbya and Tupi Guarani peoples, which recognize the traditional occupation of the Tekoá Paranapuã territory by their ancestors.
Rights violations still occur and restrictions are imposed on their traditional way of life on the territory. The indigenous resistance has multiple proportions, but the permanence in the land is pointed out as the main fight of the Tekoa Paranapuã community.
I’m glad to share with you some of that experience. To capture the beauty of simplicity mixed with the exuberance of their traditions was definitely a great and unforgettable experience as a photographer and as a Brazilian.
