THE PROJECT
Many types of fruits will be born for our strengthening,
of adults and also of children.
Things will grow for us to eat.
The children will eat too.
Many fruits will grow
Many will be born!
He who is not believing,
that is setting fire
burning the forest.
This way the trees won't grow!
Trees come from under the earth,
but when he sets fire to the earth,
the tree comes down, it comes back down.
You can't set fire to the earth,
the tree has to be born and grow
to have plenty of abundance, armadillo, water...
Because it is necessary to have water, as it rises through the roots
And that's why we're talking here!
There were many springs here, they no longer exist.
Why are people naming things?
For example, here, by the river, there is a tree called 'tokoxuk' (barrigada wood).
People saw this and are calling
the river of 'tokoxuk kox tu'
Tokoxuk tree river.
At the José Nogueira farm
people call that piece of land
in the middle of the "island" river.
Look! My nephew is here, but the others have their backs turned!
We have to stay together to see how it works.
We are not joking.
Whoever is messing with this can't turn their backs
You have to look at how it is done.
You have to pay attention to know
where are the places on the map.
Where is the Tapir River?
the tracajá lake
the “tear of macuco” lake
the lake of seeds…
If I do it alone, it will be missing…
Manuel Damásio Maxakali
Our project is initiating environmental restoration efforts in four Tikmũ'ũn-Maxakali Indigenous Lands (6,433.91 ha) (ca. 2,500 hectares), training 30 Tikmũ'ũn Indigenous Agroforestry Agents (AAFI). They will implement agroforestry backyards and environmental restoration areas, producing food, conserving and protecting forests, forming networks of seed collectors, building educational nurseries, and strengthening community environmental education and ethnodevelopment practices. Ultimately, 60 ha of AFS and 300 ha of reforestation areas will be implemented.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the proposal is to train Tikmũ'ũn Agroforestry Agents responsible for the implementation and management of agroforestry backyards and forest restoration, combining traditional knowledge with the principles of agroecology in the environmental recovery of their lands and the regaining of food sovereignty.
The other objectives are:
implement educational nurseries in villages to encourage seedling production;
implement a network of seed collectors;
raise Tikmũ'ũn practices and knowledge about agrarian systems, biodiversity, climate and cycles, articulating them with the development of a curricular matrix for recognition of secondary level training;
produce teaching material on Agroforestry for indigenous schools;
promote exchanges between Tikmũ'ũn and young people from Atlantic Forest communities;
dialogue with models of training for agroforestry agents from the Povos da Floresta Training Center, recognized since 1998 by the Acre State Department of Education as a professional secondary education;
strengthen partnerships between institutions that work among the Tikmũ'ũn, seeking to restore forests, riparian forests, fruit trees and native species in their territories;
promote food sovereignty with the implementation of SAFs;
create conditions that promote the return of animals important to the Tikmũ'ũn symbolic system.
THE TRAINING OF TIKMũ'ũN AGROFORESTRY AGENTS
The methodological principle is the leading role of Tikmũ'ũn Agroforestry Agents as researchers and actors in environmental restoration and reforestation activities on their lands. In ethnomapping workshops, they collectively considered their territories, produced, and applied territorial and environmental management content, connecting their own knowledge with that of other cultures.
The courses are essentially practical, in which Tikmũ'ũn Agroforestry Agents systematize and apply their knowledge and engage with concepts and techniques from academic scholarship on environmental management. The training includes research, survey, and systematization of traditional knowledge, and pictographic writing of new knowledge.
Courses, workshops, and advisory services are held in the villages. The training includes the participation of permanent and temporary technical-educational advisors, selected according to the specific nature of the activity. The research diaries and reports of the Tikmũ'ũn Agroforestry Agents are monitored by the team. In partnership with UFSB, UFMG, and IFNMG, this initiative aims to contribute to the regulation of a High School Vocational Training program for Tikmũ'ũn Agroforestry Agents.
THE NURSERY FARMERS AND
THE SCHOOL NURSERY
The Tikmũ'ũn women describe the school nurseries as the "womb of the forest" and the seedlings as children in need of care. The nurseries receive seedlings from our partners—the State Forestry Institute, the Cabruca Institute, and the Arboretum Program—and ensure the project's sustainability by producing new seedlings. The participation of Tikmũ'ũn women as nursery workers, who arrive with their children for seedling care activities, strengthens the educational and reproductive potential of these central spaces of Hãmhi | Terra Viva.
The school nurseries were implemented in partnership with CNPq, Maxakali Schools and the city councils of the localities where Pradinho, Água Boa and the Aldeia-Escola-Floresta are located (Bertópolis, Santa Helena de Minas, Teófilo Otoni) and built with technical assistance from the State Forestry Institute and the Arboretum Program.
