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How to Share Art with the Guarani and Witness Both Pain and Joy
Do you know the Guarani?
The Guarani-KaiowĂĄ are one of Brazilâs largest Indigenous communities. Theyâve survived forced displacement since the late 1800s and increased violence since the 1950s when private capital took over vast territories, replacing eco-diversity with monoculture plantations.
And, also, if we only see the Guaraniâs pain, we miss learning about who they are â including their rich traditions of ceremony and song.
In September 2022, Clowns Without Borders (CWB) returned to the Guarani community of Southern Brazil to listen, learn, share art, and laugh together.
In this post, youâll learn about the current conditions of the Guarani people and weâll share insights from our art exchange (a term that fits better here than tour â read on and youâll understand why).
Warning: This post references child homicide. At CWB, weâre committed to sharing the context within which we work, including naming the human rights violations our audience members have experienced. We understand this content may be upsetting. If you prefer to skip this portion of the post and go straight to the photos and video, click here.
The Guarani: Searching for âthe land without evilâ
Guarani ancestors told of a place free from pain and suffering called âthe land without evil.â And, for hundreds of years, their descendants searched for such a place.
They have yet to find it.
Instead, the Guarani have experienced territorial displacement on a massive scale. In Mato Grosso do Sul, the Guarani previously occupied 350,000 square kilometers of forests and plains. Today, 24% of the remaining Guarani population (12,000 of about 50,000 people) live in just 30 square kilometers (the Dourados Reserve).
The reserve lacks adequate land for crops, hunting, or fishing. For more on the Guaraniâs forced removal from ancestral land, see our Brazil 2019 blog post.
âDanger is experienced on an everyday basisâ
Performing artist Julie Moore recounts one disturbing event:
Maybe two hours before CWB was to perform, we get word that the body of a 13-year-old-girl, whoâs part of the community weâre performing for, has just been found.
The community asked that even with this news, we perform the show as planned.
The team delivered a performance full of empathy and gentleness.
Homicides and assaults are all too familiar in the Guarani community. And the government does not protect indigenous people from ranchersâ gunmen and militias. Perpetrators often go unpunished.
Whatâs happening, as a whole, is genocide. Itâs a genocide of indigenous peoples. Itâs not of interest to the state to give indigenous peoples strength, to give them a voice.
Alice Rocha,
social worker with childrenâs services in Dourados
International Womenâs Media Foundation
The communityâs pain is real, and itâs ongoing.
CWB is a witness to the Guaraniâs pain, and also their ceremony, song, and dance.
Joining Hands and Making Eye Contact, Rain or Shine
On tour, CWB is typically the first to offer a song. That wasnât the case with the Guarani.
According to Julie Moore, the Guaraniâs greeting was song and dance, âin every space we entered.â
For the team, the experience was vibrant, warm, and joyful.
They greeted us with joy and light and a genuine generosity of spirit. Even though many of the Indigenous people here live in difficult situations, facing the challenges of meeting basic needs, they were always so welcoming and happy to meet us and full of joy in sharing and connecting with us, and we with them.
Orlene Carlos, CWB Performing Artist
If you want to learn about the significance of song to the Guarani people, I encourage you to check out the following article by Valéria Macedo, Anthropologist and Professor at Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil. She began working with the Guarani in 2005 and her 2011 article is called Tracking Guarani songs: between villages, cities and worlds.
Feats of Juggling Feet: Sharing Clowning and Performance Art
CWB artists TetĂȘ Purezempla (Brazil), Kauan Scaldelai (Brazil), Ludmila Lopes (Brazil), Julie Moore (US), and Orlene Carlos (US) were pleased as punch to share their performance art and witty shenanigans of the highest order with the Guarani.
There were saxophone tunes, tables tossed by a foot juggler, and lots of zany clownish humor.
Here are some of our favorite shots from the performances.
Participants [of our workshops] included Indigenous artists, university students, local artists, and educators. I enjoyed meeting them and sharing techniques and knowledge.
Orlene Carlos, CWB Performing Artist
Conclusion
CWB was honored to walk on the soil that the Guarani-KaiowĂĄ are fighting for, exchange art, and listen to stories of both pain and joy.
CWB team members shared â17 performances, one workshop for those interested in the art of clowning, and one workshop for social workers.
To see more program photos, check out our video montage below!