Located in the eastern part of the city of São Paulo, the
Hãinve Ti Vai Keié village is where the meetings and rituals of the
Dofurêm Guaianá people take place, who are fighting for recognition from the authorities of the territory called São Miguel Paulista. With around 500 people today, the Dofurêm Guaianá people, originally from this territory, have been fighting against extermination and gentrification. “I often say that when we talk about São Paulo, what the vast majority call a city, we, the Dofurêm Guaianá people – native to this territory – call it home,” says
Andrey Guaianá Zignnatto , an artist, social projects activist and mixed-race indigenous person from the Guaianá and Guarani M'bya families who is one of the artists involved in an innovative project called “Retomada Territorial” (Territorial Resumption),
which will transform the Dofurêm Guaianá land into a sustainable village . The goal is to demarcate the area as a true home for the indigenous people,
mixing contemporary architectural concepts with the ancestral culture of the native people .
Indigenous population in Sao Paulo
Today (7) is the
National Day of the Struggle of Indigenous Peoples – a date created in 2008 with the aim of giving visibility to the agendas of native peoples, such as the demarcation of lands, rights and the preservation of culture. Although unknown to the general public, the state of São Paulo has 38 indigenous lands, according to the Pro-Indian Commission of São Paulo (CPI-SP) – and is the
4th municipality with the largest absolute indigenous population in Brazil , with almost 13 thousand people. Andrey Guaianá Zignnatto explains how misinformation, prejudice and fetishism drive the indigenous population, even if numerous, away from the urban areas of the state. “The foundations of the social structure of an indigenous community are very different from those of an urban society, which points to the urgent need to make the systems of local institutions more flexible to also meet the demands of the indigenous people who live here. In short, we need space: physical, territorial and institutional.”
Sustainable village
Developed by Alphaz Concept, a Brazilian developer that carries out ecologically responsible architectural projects, the sustainable project for the
Hãinve Ti Vai Keié village includes buildings that include ritual circles, a preserved forest and a fortified house, as well as a craft shop and sustainable solutions such as a photovoltaic plant, biodigesters and rainwater storage. The project was designed by
Thaisa Kleinubing , an architect specializing in sustainability, energy efficiency and Green Building from Aalborg University in Denmark.
She explains that the idea is to implement the buildings
taking advantage of existing free spaces , making minimal intervention in the soil and vegetation and using existing clearings for construction. Traditional buildings include a fortified house, a tree house and a winter house. Contemporary buildings include a reception, a shop, a cultural centre, a support area and an outdoor area for events and rituals.
Sustainability will be present in the project through ecological bricks, biodigester systems, a solar system, rainwater reuse and mortar. “The spaces with sustainable technologies can also serve to provide environmental education not only to the indigenous people, but also to the surrounding community. In addition, the village will be a place to reclaim the territory, which will serve to remember the history not only of the invasion and massacre carried out by the invaders, but also of the resistance,” he argues. Andrey emphasizes that the project will give his people not only a home, but will also “restore our identity as a nation, our ancestral memory and show others that we are still alive, and that they have not managed to extinguish us.”
