O marco territorial da memória: uma proposta intercultural do direito à memória

Abstract

This study aimed to understand how the right to memory can ensure emancipation and justice for indigenous peoples in Brazil, particularly those who, over the centuries, due to active state policies, ceased to exist. To achieve this, a case study was conducted focusing on the territory now known as Manaus and its environment, aiming to understand the relationship of the territory with the indigenous populations who inhabited it. The research constructed a historical overview of indigenous presence in Manaus and examined perspectives from the 20th century onward that solidified a mythical indigenous image, highlighting the Manaós War. The study utilized documents and historical accounts describing the extensive indigenous occupation of the region, extending up to the Upper Rio Negro, albeit primarily from non-indigenous sources. In an effort to recover traces of these communities, archaeological sites were studied, notably the Manaus Archaeological Site, which its recovery efforts were judicialized in 2004. The case study revealed that, within its confines, the State denies indigenous participation in the construction of its own memory. Accordingly, it underscored the necessity for an intercultural interpretation of the right to memory in active dialogue with diverse indigenous worldviews. Drawing on Antonio Wolkmer's formulation of legal pluralism (2001) and Julio José Araujo Junior's guidelines on intercultural interpretation (2018), it was understood that indigenous participation demands the existence of decentralized spaces for debate, respect for diverse worldviews and centrality of indigenous social movements, formed by organizations, associations, and indigenous leadership. Furthermore, after investigating how indigenous memories are constructed, with assistance from History and consultation of various ethnographies, a profound and complex relationship was found between oral tradition, mythology, and nature, establishing an inseparable methodological-temporalterritorial link. Ultimately, it was comprehended that an intercultural and pluralistic interpretation of the right to memory necessitates the presence of indigenous social movements as legitimate custodians of memory, dialogue among diverse worldviews to explore ways of remembering, and the assurance of indigenous territorial rights — spaces where memories are formed and processed.