"Itaiçaba é território indígena": resistências e permanências dos povos originários do Vale do Jaguaribe/CE

Abstract

Since white folk invaded the territory of present-day in Brazil, the indigenous people have suffered from processes that disrupt their cultures and make them invisible. However, in recent years, these peoples have been strengthening a movement to retake and reforest the mind that has allowed the occupation of important places. Regarding Vale do Jaguaribe, in Ceará, the indigenous issue is still a topic to be studied in depth, as its elements remain related to colonial processes, such as the violent occupation by pastoral activity and religious missions, acculturation, miscegenation and the extermination responsible for the indigenous “disappearance”, such as the Payaku ethnic group. These native peoples, in an attempt to survive colonial violence, developed several resistance strategies that did not let their habits, cultures, customs and traditions be completely crushed by the colonization steamroller. Thus, even though it is not visible to the eyes of the society that rose, the everyday present is permeated with native influences and legacies, such as carnauba straw handicrafts, which are strongly observed in the municipality of Itaiçaba. In this sense, through a qualitative and ethnographic research, supported by oral history, with semistructured interviews, the general objective of this paper was to analyze the resistance and permanence of the indigenous peoples of Vale do Jaguaribe through the territorialities of the artisans of carnauba straw from Itaiçaba, which preserves ancestral indigenous practices. As for specific objectives, what was looked for was: i) to understand the territorialities of the indigenous presence in the Vale do Jaguaribe; ii) to identify the resistance and permanence of indigenous peoples materialized in the culture of the region; iii) to present indigenous territoriality, resistance and permanence through the production of straw handicrafts in Itaiçaba. With the fulfillment of the research, we observed the role of the artisans who safeguard the straw handicraft and transmit, even if unconsciously, the indigenous resistance of the jaguaribana region.