MARANHÃO: CONNECTING MANGROVES AND THE AMAZON
Project:
Planting Roots with the Noke Koi
Background
Planting traditional seeds and preserving traditional arts for autonomy, food security and self-sufficiency in the Amazon
A part of the Noke Koi Indigenous people has been living for many years by the road to Cruzeiro do Sul. As well as food shortages, they have been suffering extreme social impacts that have contributed to the fragmentation of their culture, but nevertheless they have kept their mother tongue alive, and spoken by the whole community. Various arts have survived, including games, music, as well as cultural practices including ceramics, basketry and clothing. The keepers of these traditions, however, are elderly and their knowledge is in danger of being lost.
Some villages have been suffering from food shortages, as they are no longer planting the traditional seeds grown by their ancestors, such as native corn varieties, varieties of beans and many other ancestral crops. Moreover, there are health and environmental problems, and their drinking water is of poor quality.
Musician Alexandre Anselmo first arrived in Acre in 2005, on a mission to record and keep alive musical traditions from indigenous and other groups of the Amazon facing social upheavals. Over the years, the Baquemirim Institute grew up around his work, with an emphasis on food security and knowledge exchange between the elders and youth of the Noke Koi nation.
In order to respond to the threats faced by frontline communities, Baquemirim has partnered with Indigenous agroecology technician Paka Noke Koi to run workshops to turn deforested areas into regenerative agroforestry systems.
The success of this project is a powerful example of cultural survival, and an urgent message to local indigenous groups of the Pano linguistic family that ancient cultures can prosper by preserving their traditional ways of living.
Agroforestry systems will contribute to the villages’ food security
Project Goals
With your support, we aim to:
Six agroforestry plots in Indigenous villages
Strengthen the Noke Koi association
Preservation of traditional arts
What next?
Baquemirim and RAIN are supporting the Akô Youth project, sharing knowledge of traditional music and guitar-playing with the young people of the villages.
Our agroecological projects will continue to develop, with the addition of coconut seedlings as well as maize, peanut, cotton and beans, with the help of agroforestry technician Paka Noke Koi.
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