Harvest time

from 1991 to 1999

The last decade of the millennium was also a moment of major changes in Brazil’s indigenous movement, with the multiplication of local and regional indigenous organizations and the expansion of national ones.

For the Núcleo de Cultura Indígena, it’s time for new partnerships, for decentralizing the work of the Indigenous Research Center, which is leaving the Goiânia site for actions in the villages of the Yawanawá, Huni Kuin and Ashaninka peoples in Acre and the Krenak people in Minas Gerais.

The Forest Peoples’ Alliance is growing stronger and involves an important ally: singer-songwriter Milton Nascimento. The beautiful, award-winning album TXAI was conceived by Milton in 1990, after a trip to villages in Acre where he sailed the rivers and made friendships that changed his life. Milton Nascimento is the first renowned artist to include in his work recordings of traditional indigenous music captured especially in the Wayapy, Paiter Suruí and Kayapó villages, with copyright assured to the communities.

These are years of intense cultural production. The Embassy of the Peoples of the Forest leaves an important legacy, even though it closes down in 1993 when the building is reclaimed by the newly elected mayor. In 1994, the first CD of traditional indigenous music was released: “Etenhiritipá – Cantos da Tradição Xavante” in partnership with the village of Pimentel Barbosa. A success with critics and the public, with a video clip to promote it and space in all the national media.

The CD reaches the United States and inspires rock band Sepultura, who records a track with the Xavante people of Pimentel Barbosa on their 1996 album Roots, taking traditional indigenous music to all corners of the world and reaching a new audience.

Also in partnership with the Xavante people, the Nucleus organizes the pioneering book Wamrèmê Zara. Nossa Palavra – Mito e História do Povo Xavante (Our Word – Myth and History of the Xavante People), with accounts by the five oldest men about their contact with the Warazu – the white people – at the end of the 1940s, published by Editora SENAC-SP in 1998. Plus the documentary A’uwê Uptabi – O Povo Verdadeiro (A’uwê Uptabi – The True People), the exhibition Xavante 50 years of Contact, with exhibitions and performances at the Museu da República in Rio de Janeiro, and the ritual performance of singing and dancing Itsari, presented at the SESC International Theater Exhibition in 1997.

Another important partnership was with the Japanese photographer Hiromi Nagakura, who traveled to various villages following Ailton Krenak’s work, resulting in exhibitions, books and documentaries in Japan between 1993 and 1997. This partnership was resumed in 2023 with the exhibition Hiromi Nagakura to the Amazon with Ailton Krenak, which has already toured six capitals.

The Indigenous Dance and Culture Festival in Serra do Cipó, three years in a row: 1998, 1999 and 2000 was another important event to bring indigenous peoples closer to a wider public through art and culture. The Festival legacy included time spent together and closeness, as well as the CD Canto das Montanhas – music by the Krenak, Maxakali and Pataxó peoples and the book O Lugar Onde a Terra Descansa (Eco Rio 2000 and Núcleo de Cultura Indígena) with texts by Ailton Krenak and photographs by various authors.

The Center also issued two publications, in 1992 and 1996, with the results of its work. A bountiful harvest of important results not only for the indigenous peoples who are partners in the projects carried out, but also for raising awareness among the Brazilian population. A work ahead of its time that promoted the thought, art and history of indigenous peoples and contributed to the respect for a different way of being in the world.

The headquarters of the Núcleo de Cultura Indígena moves from São Paulo to Minas Gerais at the end of 1999, closing a cycle of almost two decades of many achievements and starting another cycle with new sowings.