A constant construction of history with archaeological pieces, indigenous narratives, maps, photos and documents about the Rio Negro at different times was the proposal for the exhibition “Memories of Ancestral Landscapes”, held at Casa do Saber/Maloca of the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Rio Black (Foirn), in São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM).
The exhibition, held in February, was produced by the Museum of the Amazon (MUSA) and brought together part of the result of the work of the Intercultural Archaeological Program of the Northwest Amazon (Parinã), developed by indigenous and non-indigenous researchers in the areas of archaeology, cartography, anthropology and history. Visitors were able to contribute to the exhibition through an interactive map of the region.
“With the exhibition, we gave feedback on what has been done so far within Parinã, with several layers of knowledge that range from archaeological pieces to the oral narrative of a myth. From old documents and photos to the story of a person who knows what happened in that place, because his grandfather told him,” said Filippo Stampanoni, archaeologist and deputy scientific director at MUSA.
“We offered visitors a walk along the trajectory of what this collective experience of history in the Rio Negro region is.” The exhibition was financed by the British Academy.
Initiated in 2018, the Parinã Program involves several partners, such as the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi (MPEG), MUSA, the Institute of Archeology of University College London (UCL) and the Federal University of São Carlos ( UFSCar), and with the support of Foirn.
In the path of stories proposed by the exhibition, visitors were able to see archaeological fragments found in excavations in São Gabriel da Cachoeira in 2019 and 2022, in the square of the Diocese and in the area of the headquarters of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio). They indicate that the region has been occupied for at least two thousand years.
With the fragments taken from the archaeological site, it was possible to reconstruct a piece from the pre-colonial period, possibly used for decoration, which ended up standing out from the others due to the difference in style, raising a series of hypotheses.
One of these possibilities is that the region where the municipality of São Gabriel is located today may have housed a pluriethnic society in the past. The city retains this characteristic today, as it is one of the main urban centers of a large territory where 23 indigenous peoples live.
“In the excavations in São Gabriel, pieces of the so-called Polychrome Tradition of the Amazon were found, a stylistic set with a wide and standardized distribution dating from the period from 800 to 1600 (AD)”, explained Stampanoni.
“We can imagine that this model is older than the period mentioned. We can also think that the piece is from the same period, but from regional groups that met in the region where São Gabriel is today, characterizing a pluriethnic society”, defined the archaeologist.
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Despite the difference in style, the pieces found bear an important similarity in the way they are made. All are made with the same type of material – basically clay and caraipé (a house made of burnt and ground trees) – still used today by potters in the region.
“We can say that there is a technological tradition in ceramic making that starts two thousand years ago and reaches today and is continuing into the future. If we think in general terms, the Upper Rio Negro is a region where it is possible to stretch a timeline, a cultural continuity from ancient times to the present day”, he said.
Ceramics is one of the parameters to observe this continuity.
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Anthropologist Fran Baniwa, who researches the role of women in Baniwa society, visited the exhibition and brought reflections on the connection between the peoples of the Rio Negro and the territory. “I never imagined seeing old utensils, used for eating and making food, ornaments and rituals. Made the way we still use it today,” she described it. “This exhibition proves, through other methodologies, what is already in our narratives: that we have always been here, since the construction of this world. The study is fundamental and reaffirms our presence in this territory”, she added.
These narratives cited by Fran Baniwa were part of the exhibition. A mini-documentary produced by anthropologist Aline Scolfaro and filmmaker Moisés Baniwa showed indigenous connoisseurs walking around São Gabriel and explaining points considered to be spaces for important events reported in mythical narratives. The film is not yet available for viewing.
For archaeologist Meliam Gaspar, from MUSA, who was also in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, the show’s differential was seeing people identifying with the exhibition and telling their story or retelling what had already been written.
One of the panels brought a map where people could add points of sacred places that they know, but that are not yet described. “People like to see what is related to their story, to talk about their own story. This is one of the special parts of the exhibition,” she reflected.
The exhibition was visited by experts and indigenous leaders from the region, students and the general public. A resident of Duraka Island, on the banks of the Rio Negro, in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Maria Odicleia Freitas Escobar, from the Baré people, was one of the monitors at the exhibition. Having recently graduated in archaeology, she carried out this exercise in building knowledge, remembering the history of her community.
“The island of Duraka is one of the places where the transformation canoe has anchored. She anchored and tied her canoe to the trunk of the tree called Duraka and went out to see if she could continue her journey, as just above that point there are many rocks in the stretch of river. That trunk is still there, but in stone form and it is a sacred place,” she said.
The myth of the snake-canoe or canoe of transformation talks about the origin of the Tukano peoples in the region.
Check it out: Routes of creation and transformation: origin narratives of the indigenous peoples of Rio Negro
The exhibition also featured narrative panels, images and documents referring to the colonial period and the presence of Europeans in the region. The cartographic material allowed the visualization of São Gabriel with its several layers of stories.
To mark the holding of the exhibition, a conversation was held with the presence of anthropologist Manuel Arroyo-Kalin, from the Institute of Archeology at University College London (UCL), who is also a researcher at Parinã.
Participating in the meeting were biologist Natália Pimenta, an analyst at the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), and the director of Foirn, Dário Cassimiro, from the Baniwa people.
At the end, the indigenous artist Rose Waikhon, from the Piratapuya people, made a performance bringing cultural and ancestral elements of the indigenous peoples of the Rio Negro. “The exhibition brings pages from the narratives that have always been in our orality”, she reflected. The exhibition featured a poem by the artist.
It is not yet planned to exhibit “Memories of Ancestral Landscapes” in other cities.