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EXCHANGE TO THE TERRA VISTA SETTLEMENT, ARATACA
September 11-17, 2023

The connection between the Terra Vista Settlement and the People's Web with the Tikmũ'ũn peoples was born of ancestral struggles, as Master Joelson would say. But since 2018, this union has been forged, with the visits of Masters Joelson Ferreira and Solange Brito to various Tikmũ'ũn territories. In 2022, Terra Vista began welcoming several groups of Tikmũ'ũn families to the Terra Vista Settlement, providing the experience of dialogue with the community and the masters who have been carrying out the agroecological transition for over 30 years on the Settlement. In 1992, when the 360 MST families occupied the former Bela Vista farm, the Settlement was a degraded cocoa production area, ravaged by witch's broom disease. In addition to evictions, the families experienced hunger and the numerous disappointments of capital-controlled agriculture and its famous "green package." Beginning in 2002, farmers began a process of agroecological transition, successfully transforming the settlement space on a large scale, restoring riparian forests, growing organic food, ensuring water and food autonomy, producing for their families, and creating forests. Today, the Terra Vista Settlement is a living school, where young Tikmũ'ũn learn from master farmers in areas at different stages of agroecological transformation and can experience agroecology. During this activity, they were able to participate in activities with Capixaba masters Daniel, Izaque, Pedro, Valdir, Bruno, Solange, Dayse, and Joelson. They practiced simple cooperative practices, spacing, biogel production, composting, organic gardening, seed and seedling collection, and nursery work. The walks through the forest and the various spaces of the settlement, as well as the collection of seedlings, were punctuated by songs and gestures of joy and reunion between the Tikmũ'ũn and their Yãmĩyxop people.

The Tikmũ'ũn did not go hungry!

The Tikmũ̃'ũn did not go hungry when they walked.

When there was a lot of land, people went into the forest a lot.

I was hunting animals and there was cará (a type of yam).

They walked

hunted some animal

they harvested yams

and other types of food.

We didn't see any of that, we just heard the Tikmũ'ũn talking

When they cooked the yam, it took a while to cook.

The Tikmũ'ũn could eat any type of fruit:

xuyãm, xuyãm ta, xagãy, mĩmta xeka…

sapucaia, chestnut…

I ate everything!

And today it is young people who want to bring this back.

When the forest grows, the Tikmũ̃'ũn will see all this again,

They will have a good head and the children too.

They will learn from their elders how to do things

The children will watch to learn how to plant seeds.

The project people helped us.

I like it this way

I want us to do things with our entire community strong.

If Pradinho unites and becomes strong, the movement will be very good!

Movement is good when it is strong!

Let's do this move now!

Along with those who are there, who are seedling planting teachers.

This is Renato who will do things for the community here in Pradinho.

And that!

Manuel Damasio

Ethnomapping workshop, Nova Vila village, Pradinho, May 2023

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