Our Rivers Speak will record/broadcast the living memory and culture of Cabelo Seco, a community that lies between the dying Rivers Tocantins and Itacaiunas, gateway to the Amazon. Coordinated by young Afro-Indigenous artists, our videos will reach local, national-international schools, networks and leaders through digital media to sustain global eco-systems by preserving local cultural diversity threatened by the industrialization of the Amazon.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Community of Cabelo Seco (Dry Hair) in the city of Maraba, Para
Describe the specific community with whom you will be working.
Composed of 380 families, this founding-community of Maraba is socio-politically marginalised and ravaged by drug-related violence caused by 100 years of poverty. Its popular culture is rich in story, traditional medicine and social values passed on by generations of fishermen and washer-women. This wisdom can inspire the community and its city to unite and network with other communities to practice alternative models of sustainable development
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
ORS will video life-stories (river-work, child-birth, health, schooling, ethical life-choices, songs, dreams), and photos of 10 elderly fishermen and washerwomen, interspersed with songs, videos and stories of 10 young relatives of assassinated family-members, to enable our rivers to speak out for life. This material will be distributed as videos through social networks & mobile-phones and offered as raw-material for intercultural collaboration.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established that will contribute to the success of the project.
Transformance Institute is based in Cabelo Seco. Its video, music, photography art educators and editors live in the community and have trained local youth artists since 2009, building confidence and creating 4 videos in 2012 with their local schools and other Amazonian communities. As a coordinator of the Pan-Amazonian and World Social Forums and Latin-American Arts for Transformation Network, we have strong access to many networked projects.
How many participants do you think will be involved in your project?
Based in Cabelo Seco since 2008, our Institute has trained 5 youth organizer-artists for the ORS project who created 4 videos in 2012. Each will mobilize 8 youth from their local school to train as community-based digital artist-producers, to interview 20 elders/youth victims’ relatives, and link with regional and world networks. Motivation is and will be sustained by social recognition, carreer opportunity and media celebration of ethical choice
Besides the microgrant funding, what other resources and support are you seeking for your project to ensure its success?
Rising Voices could provide access to similar youth-based digital multi-media projects around the world; to other urban and remote riverside communities facing similar cultural/ecological issues; to networks dedicated to sustainable development projects; to videos concerned with related sociocultural questions to extend our community video library for project training and as resources for schools in this city and the Amazonian region.
Contact name
Manoela Souza
Organization
Transformance Institute: Culture & education