Pablo Antunha Barbosa

This research aims to continue the collaboration started in 2021 with the Pataxó indigenous community, focused on the reconstruction of the Indigenous Museum in the Village of Coroa Vermelha (Porto Seguro, Bahia). The museum was built in the late 1990s to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the “Discovery” of Brazil. After the commemoration, the museum was abandoned by the authorities, except by the indigenous community, who managed to keep it open until 2018, when it was closed. Because of its emotional importance, the community decided to rebuild it based on different epistemological frameworks inspired by the new indigenous and social museology. After three years of collaboration, some results were achieved: the museum’s statute was developed collectively, and the temporary exhibition “Ãbakohay ūg kahab: Pataxó Memory and Living” was set up curated by Arissana Pataxó and Oiti Pataxó, marking the museum’s reopening in January 2024. This research seeks to initiate a new phase of the project: to conduct more in-depth research, in collaboration with these indigenous artists, to develop the expographic project for the museum’s permanent exhibition. How do the Pataxó construct their self-narratives? What is the importance of these discourses of indigenous authorship for understanding the territorial recovery of the Pataxó? What lessons can we learn? These are some of the questions that will guide this collaborative research.