Kuahí: the indians of the Lower Oiapoque and their museum

Abstract

In recent decades we have witnessed a proliferation of museums, including indigenous museums, with an emphasis on regionalization and active participation of the collectivities in which they are inserted. This article involves the implementation of the Museum of the Indigenous Peoples of Oiapoque, which was a request made by the four ethnic groups that inhabit the region - the Palikur, Galibi Kali'na, Karipuna and Galibi Marworno - to the governor of Amapá in 1998. Since then, projects and actions have been realized for the revival and strengthening of the cultural heritage of these peoples that inhabit the far north of Brazil, on the border with French Guyana. We present these actions, their consequences and the articulation among partnerships (with indigenous organizations, government agencies and NGOs), which led to the development and operation of a regional museological institution that is dedicated to housing, preserving and promoting the cultural archives of these peoples, and to training indigenous museology technicians, teachers and researchers. Finally we address the importance of the different collections about these indigenous peoples that have been formed over the past two decades and report of the exhibitions mounted at the Kuahí Museum in Oiapoque and at the Museum of the Indian in Rio de Janeiro, emphasizing the specificity of each.

Ethnographic museums: object, cosmology and ritual

“…The Museum currently has two exhibition halls, auditorium, bibliographic and audiovisual research rooms, pedagogical activities room and shop of indigenous articles (Vidal 2013: p. 403). For the first inaugural exhibition the Indians said they wanted to "expose everything" (Vidal 2013). From the museological point of view it is not a recommended attitude, but as they wanted everything to be exposed, then everything would have to be exposed and all the spaces of the museum were occupied (idem).…”

Política, desentendimento e representação fonográfica entre os Tikuna

“…Seus princípios se nortearam por algumas das questões críticas do pós-1960: a reformulação das relações entres pesquisadores e conhecedores locais na chave da promoção de trabalhos participativos-colaborativos (Fals Borba & Brandão 1987;Lassiter 1998;Araujo & Cambria, 2013); os problemas levantados sobre a escrita etnográfica como política e poética (Clifford & Marcus 1986), e sua contrapartida, a dialogia, a autoria-compartilhada, o exame crítico das condições históricas de produção do conhecimento científico-humanista. Concomitante a isso, para o caso brasileiro em sentido mais amplo, do ponto de vista da organização política dos grupos e coletivos historicamente subalternizados, posturas críticas e contra-hegemônicas se potencializaram, nas últimas décadas em especial com a proliferação de Centros e Museus Comunitários entre índios, afro-brasileiros, camponeses e camadas populares, sempre ao redor de lutas por reconhecimento de direitos (Freire 2003;Vidal 2013;Abreu 2012;Oliveira 2012).…”

Lições indígenas para a descolonização dos museus: processos comunicacionais em discussão / Indigenous people's lessons for decolonizing museums: communication processes under discussion

“…Os museus indígenas consistem em outra resposta indígena ao museu e ao papel social que pode assumir. Os indígenas se apropriaram plenamente do museu, tanto que realizam as suas próprias instituições no Brasil (ABREU, 2012;FREIRE, 2009;GOMES, 2012;ROCA, 2015a;VIDAL, 2013;VIDAL, 2008) e no exterior (FERREIRA, RAMÍREZ, 2015;MEZA, FERREIRA, 2016;ORTIZ MACIEL, 2012;ROCA, 2015a;ROCA, 2015b;SCARAMELLI, SCARAMELLI, 2015;STANLEY, 2007), para satisfazer suas necessidades e atender suas visões de mundo, como também escrevem sobre elas (SANTOS, 2016;CAMPOS, 2016;PEREIRA, 2016) e as divulgam na internet, nas mídias sociais.…”