Arctic/Amazon

According to European Historical accounts, it is told that the Americas were “discovered” when Christopher Columbus and his crew attempted to chart a route and oceanic passage to India. For this reason, Native people living in the continent were called “Indian” by these naval explorers. Today this term is intensively criticized, not only for the lack of meaning and relation to the Nations and Peoples living in this immense land mass that dwarfs Europe in size, but because of the generalization and how it has been used throughout history to homogenize diverse groups into a colonizable whole. Nevertheless, the term is still largely employed in South America, even by Indigenous folks. Yet, increasing critical debate and Indigenous participation in government and the formulation of laws, government policies and educational parameters have made a considerable impact. Amazonian Indigenous Writer and educator Daniel Munduruku often addresses this topic during his public discussions and certain audiences are persistently taken aback: 

“So, I want to say that, despite my Indian face, my straight Indian hair, my Indian eye [puxado], my Indian cheekbones and this fit Indian body, I’m not an Indian. And I’d say more: there is no Indian in Brazil. (…) The Word Indian means absolutely nothing. If you look it up in the dictionary, it says it is “the chemical element no 49 on the periodic chart. Which Indian is celebrated on April 19th? Its an imaginary Indian. Not a real Indian. This Indian that was constructed during the nation’s formation doesn’t exist. Hence my affirmation: I am not and I don’t exist.”

The generic idea of “Indian” has been developed for centuries and usually goes one of two ways. Either a romanticized view of an “Indian” who is pure, untouched, and unspoiled good savage, or a wild, lazy, untrustworthy, godless retrograde savage who is an obstacle to progress and development. Both images are consistent cultural representations in visual culture and the arts, from the onset of colonization up until today. In Brazil, the Romantic period created icons of literature and painting that solely depict a version of Indigenous cultures that end up deceased, as if disappearance was inevitable. Several stories, both documental and fictional, mention the Amazonian territory as dangerous but magic, including the long-lasting legend of the Eldorado: a golden city filled with precious stones hidden in the heart of the Amazon.

None of these projections consider the real lives of Indigenous Amazonian peoples and their diversity. Munduruku continues his explanation with a question: “What defines who I am? My identity, right? My name, how I present myself to people. It’s how I identify myself, and in that case, I say I’m not an indian. But I am Munduruku. Being Munduruku is different from being Indian. And is different from being Wapichana, Kaiapó, Xavante, Brazillian. Being Munduruku is having an ancestrality, a way to read the world, a way to be human that is different from other People. (…) In Brazil only, there are 307 distinct Indigenous peoples, represented in all Brazilian states speaking 276 Indigenous languages.” 

Most Indigenous ethnic groups from the Amazon are called by names given to them by their “neighbours,” which are adopted by the colonizers, which is a similar process to what occurred to the Inuit/Eskimo and Sami. Only recently have they begun to defend their right to be recognized in their own language and naming mechanism. It is a significant political achievement, but not everyone engages in this debate. How many of the names came to be is an important story. The people formerly known as Kaxinawá, who live between Brazil and Peru, were named by other groups that live in the region. The name translates into English as “the people of the bat.” Today they call themselves Huni Kuin, which loosely translates to “real people.”