Universe grandmother

When I return to the Rio Negro, land where I am a son, my hope is to reunite and listen to my grandmother. Mrs. Felicia, strong-body lady, deep voice, medusian eyes. Sweet and acrid. After almost a decade, my heart in affection hopes to see her again.

 

Whéromi is the one who tells how we were before the world existed for us. She is the one in possession of the thread of history that slowly and pragmatically weaves all the memory that our eyes did not arrive to record. Grandma, owner of secrets and wisdoms that attentive ears need to capture every day. With my grandmother I can imagine how my family arrived in Padauiri, where she was born; in Jacitara, the place where my mother was born; in Darí, where I was born. With her, I learn to treat the hunting and make fire, to swim and to harvest tucumã. And I also learn about my origin, place and belonging.

 

Nhíromi teaches me that, before her and other human grandmothers, ancestral grandmothers that live in the cosmos were the ones who gave birth to all kinds of people. Grandmother-Sucuriju, Grandmother-Jaguar, Grandmother-Tapir, Grandmother-Cotia, Grandmother-Heron and many others. The cosmos was given birth by several Universe Grandmothers, from where today I seek a return, patience and listening. Because it is where I can trust my feet and my spirit. It's the Mater I can go back to.

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Denilson Baniwa was born in 1984 in Darí village, in Rio Negro, Amazonas. His career as an artist begins in childhood as an outcome of his people cultural references. In youth, the artist begins his trajectory in the struggle for the rights of the indigenous people and transits through the non-indigenous universe strengthen the stage of this resistance. Denilson Baniwa is an Anthropophagic artist, because he appropriates occidental languages to decolonize them in his work. His contemporary trajectory stablish the artist as a reference in the Brazilian Territory, breaking paradigms and paving the way for the leading role of the indigenous people in the country.