10/28/2023 – 16:46
In addition to being responsible for curating the exhibition Mekukradjá Obikàrà,: with feet in two worlds, the Beture collective – the Mekarõ opodjwyj movement, composed of Mẽbêngôkre-Kayapó indigenous filmmakers and communicators – produced the material for the exhibition, which forms the link between the ancestry and younger indigenous people of this ethnic group. The exhibition – opened this Saturday (28), on the mezzanine of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), in Niterói, in the state of Rio – continues until November 26.
Beture is the name of an ant with a red head and a black back, found in the Kayapó territory, whose characteristic is a very powerful bite. It has the same colors used by the indigenous people of the ethnic group when they paint themselves for war.
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“Mẽbêngôkre-Kayapó youth want to record the life and culture of their people through audiovisual technologies and various media. Today, the collective plays a fundamental role in achieving cultural recognition, as well as in the visibility of political structures”, informed the organizers of the exhibition.
Audiovisuals
Since 2015, when it emerged, Beture has contributed to organizing and structuring a youth movement that has been spreading across many indigenous communities. Since then, audiovisual training has been carried out to enhance the collective’s productions and offer filmmakers more knowledge about image capture, scriptwriting and editing techniques.
The exhibition material with photos and videos from the collective’s collection was obtained by Kayapó filmmakers on trips to some villages and portrays the transformation of the culture of the Mebêngôkre-Kayapó people, who inhabit six indigenous lands in the south of Pará and the north of Mato Grosso. The exhibition also has three canvases painted by 15 Kayapó women during the 2023 Acampamento Terra Livre (ATL), which took place between April 24 and 28, in Brasília.
“We gathered the stories in the video section of how our grandparents were in the past and are no longer present and, with that, we young people aim to bring this back, revive [a cultura] and strengthen it even more”, said Kayapó Kokokaroti Txukahamãe Metuktere, in an interview with Agência Brasil and TV Brasil.
Because of her studies, the 22-year-old Kayapó young woman, who is part of the collective, started living outside Aldeia Capoto in the Capoto-jarina Reserve and went to live in Colniza, a nearby city in Mato Grosso. She said that, even outside the place of origin, it is possible to maintain cultural traditions.
“There can often be a young person who wonders if they are going to lose their culture, but they don’t. You can preserve culture using indigenous knowledge,” she noted, adding that she already has some training, but plans to attend university, more specifically, a film course.
Through research work for the exhibition, Kokokaroti was able to see his grandfather’s image for the first time.
“This moment we are having here in this exhibition, we searched, we ran after each of the images and, mainly, I saw a photo of my grandfather, who I never had the opportunity to meet, nor his fight. We found images of each leader, they all had important voices at that time. We got to know some cultures, like traditional dances that happened back then and don’t happen anymore. With this objective, I want to seek knowledge about cinema,” he explained.
Male chauvinism
The young woman also highlighted the presence of women among the Kayapó. According to Kokokaroti, they are currently working together and this helps to combat machismo in the communities.
“It is a very important thing to have the presence of women within spaces, because there is a lot of machismo that we face and now we are coming together more to take up space, strengthening [as mulheres] within the village community and in studies”, he observed.
For Kokokaroti Txukahamãe Metuktere, the traditional songs he sees from his ancestors and the haircuts of women and men are the representations that most characterize Kayapó culture. “[Isso] It is started by our ancestors and our grandparents. It’s a symbol of ours and the traditional women’s cut, which men can also do,” she said.
Professionalization
As a way to guarantee an alternative source of income for the Mẽbêngôkre-Kayapó people, the Mekarõ opodjwyj seek a professional path. In the political area, they work to generate the possibility for young leaders to participate in political mobilizations and also to exchange knowledge with other people.
Audiovisual has become a powerful instrument for the Mẽbêngôkre-Kayapó for the cultural strengthening of their own records about life, ceremonial and daily activities.
Beture’s production is around 30 films per year, which usually deal with the metoro, which are the naming parties, political events and some fiction films representing the narratives of the origin of the Mẽbêngôkre-Kayapó mythology, mainly transmitted by the elders .
The films are shown in communities and are very well received in the Mẽbêngôkre-Kayapó villages, but other audiences at regional, national and international levels also have access.
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