With funding from FAPESP, the Documentation Center for Indigenous Languages and Cultures will be coordinated by the Museum of the Portuguese Language and the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at USP
Brazil is one of the most multilingual countries in the world. In addition to Portuguese, hundreds of Indigenous languages are spoken nationwide, and many are endangered. To contribute to research, documentation, and dissemination of the linguistic and cultural diversity of Brazil's Indigenous peoples, the Museum of the Portuguese Language (MLP) and USP's Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE) joined forces and established the Documentation Center for Indigenous Languages and Cultures.
“Language is not just grammatical structure; it's territory, identity, and a way of living and feeling the world. Our Indigenous languages hold within them entire forests, rivers, stars, spirits, and knowledge. There are 274 languages spoken in Brazil today. Each is a living library, a worldview, a universe in motion. And every time an Indigenous language disappears, the world loses a way of being. That's why this center is born as resistance, as re-existence, as a seed that will sprout knowledge, public policies, pedagogical materials, and, above all, recognition. And here, together, we are building this great arc of reconstructive learning of knowledge,” the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, said during the ceremony to launch the Documentation Center for Indigenous Languages and Cultures.
For USP's president, Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Junior, “Brazilian universities must expand their relations with the countries and peoples of Latin America. This is a great opportunity to improve our teaching and research, based on our partnership with the Museum of the Portuguese Language and representatives of Indigenous populations. These interactions will give USP a new identity, and it is essential that we can incorporate new knowledge to become a better university.”
With R$14.5 million in funding from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the center aims to develop unprecedented research and become a national and international benchmark for the creation of digital collections of intangible knowledge and Indigenous practices, based on relationships of trust and respect for the communities and Indigenous specialists involved.
The FAPESP's president, Marco Antonio Zago, explained, “With this center, we are fulfilling our obligation to establish a solid organization that promotes the recording, studying, and disclosing of Indigenous cultures, including their rich linguistic repertoire. It is imperative that the different facets of Brazilian society are equally represented in our science and education efforts. Despite all the actions taken to suppress Indigenous culture, the Indigenous language was the predominant means of communication in São Paulo until the 18th century, and its influence is still present in the caipira and paulista dialects.”
The Documentation Center for Indigenous Languages and Cultures opened on Tuesday, May 20, in the auditorium of the Museum of the Portuguese Language. The ceremony was attended by the Secretary of Culture, Economy, and Creative Industry of the State of São Paulo, Marília Marton, as well as Indigenous leaders, artists, and authorities in the field of Indigenous studies.
Repository of cultural and linguistic diversity
The partnership between the Museum of the Portuguese Language and the MAE, the Documentation Center for Indigenous Languages and Cultures will create a digital repository of documents and collections on linguistics and anthropology from Indigenous communities in Brazil and neighboring countries. The need to encourage the production of unprecedented research on native peoples was recognized by the United Nations (UN), which set the period from 2022 to 2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
“This center is an innovative initiative, based in two museums, which combines research, documentation, and cultural dissemination, to strengthen the languages and knowledge of Indigenous peoples. In the spirit of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, faced with the challenge of historically unfeasible memories we cannot access, we have committed to planting digital seeds. We want to generate living archives and fertile ground with Indigenous peoples in the decision-making and implementation of this project, joining forces with institutions, researchers, museums, and civil society organizations,” the Museum of the Portuguese Language's executive director, Renata Motta, explained.
Anthropologist Maria Luísa de Souza Lucas and linguist Luciana Storto are in charge of the center's Anthropology and Linguistics areas. The center will also open a selection process for 14 undergraduate and graduate fellows and five technical fellows, with special attention to Indigenous candidates.
MAE's director, Eduardo Góes Neves, points out that “we want to incorporate, in an honest and genuine way, the Indigenous researchers' knowledge into our center's scientific production process. We believe this interaction will mark a new path for the university, making it even more diverse, interesting, and productive.”
The center will work along three key areas: research and documentation; construction of the free-access digital repository in which the collections will be stored; and cultural communication, which will focus on intercultural mediation and dissemination actions.
English version: Nexus Traduções, edited by Denis Pacheco
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