For a week, researchers and actors from the cultural world of São Paulo are present in the territory. Among the objectives of their trip: the establishment of a multi-site exhibition, in Guyana, to promote indigenous languages in 2025 and a call for projects for researchers
Kali'na, palikur, wayana, apalaï and wayãpi. Five of the seven Amerindian languages spoken in Guyana are also spoken in Brazil. This lack of border between our two countries is not only found in linguistics. “In the case of ceramics, there are no borders: there are very interesting pieces here or in Macapà that are similar” says Eduardo Neves. The man knows what he's talking about. Director of the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo, he is also a specialist on the subject. Like him, other professionals from the world of culture in São Paulo are present with us for a week: Roberta Saraiva, technical director of the Portuguese Language Museum based in São Paulo and her colleague, Fernando Gallo, cultural programmer, Majoí Gongora , exhibition curator and anthropologist as well as Nadège Mézié, cooperation advisor at the Public Research Funding Foundation of the State of São Paulo.
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Their mission : set up, with local actors, an exhibition on border languages. The project is part of the France-Brazil Season in 2025, desired by Presidents Lula and Macron, following their meeting in June 2023 in Paris. To give new impetus to the relationship between the two countries, which will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2025, several actions based on partnerships between French and Brazilian institutions and organizations will be proposed in each country.
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In 2022, the Portuguese Language Museum had carried out “ The beautiful word », an exhibition which had traveled to several cities in Brazil, but also to Paris. « But the plan is not to bring this exhibition to Guyana »specifies Roberta Saraiva. It would rather be a matter of transposing the Paulista experience here. « It is an exhibition with an interesting structure, with contemporary artists, historical objects and documents, maps, figures and information about our populations » lists Roberta Saraiva.
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Anne-Marie Chambrier, from the Cultural, Heritage and Identities Center of the Territorial Collectivity of Guyana (CTG), who accompanies the delegation, agrees. « When you visit a museum, it is often from a European point of view : we take an object to animate a space in an attempt to reflect indigenous thought and spirit. What we want to do is offer something in another format where indigenous artists, speakers and linguists. The success of this exhibition cannot be achieved without this. »
The exhibition which should see the light of day should be offered in three sectors: on the coast, in Saint-Laurent and in Saint-Georges. It remains, among other things, to identify the locations. Until Sunday, visits and meetings continue in this direction.
Still as part of this program, Saison France-Brazil, two researchers are also on the trip: Rafael Andery Sampaio and João Artur da Silva Reis from Initiative Amazônia+10. They came to meet their counterparts from Guyana with one objective: to present a call for projects for workshops in France, Guyana and Brazil. “The idea,” says Rafael, “is to finance and create a network between Brazilian researchers and those from Guyana. We already have international partners like the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany. Guyana would be the first international and Amazonian partner.”
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The call for projects is open for four themes: biodiversity and climate change, traditional peoples and knowledge production, health, economic life as a driver of sustainable development. Each workshop will be funded up to 170,000 reais. The program has a total budget of 700,000 reais.
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