“Territory is not a place where we live. It is a place where we are.” This thought from educator, writer, and quilombola leader Antônio Bispo dos Santos, known as Nêgo Bispo, is an invitation to reflect on the land we inhabit and the sense of belonging. To exist, visibility (concrete and symbolic) and legitimation are necessary: the opportunity to say “we exist and live here” is one of the first steps in the search for social recognition of traditional communities.
For quilombola communities and other traditional communities, the concept of "territory" transcends the limits of geography and physical space. Territory is also understood as a space of ancestry, resistance, and preservation of cultural, social, religious, and traditional knowledge and ways of life.
Faced with the challenge of reconciling this vision of a "living territory" with the need to collect technical data and information to support land regularization processes, the Tô no Mapa initiative partnered with Malungu, the Coordination of Associations of Quilombo Remnant Communities of Pará. "Malungu," a term of African origin meaning "companion on the journey," symbolizes the organization's history of struggle, working side-by-side to guarantee the rights of quilombo communities in Pará, the Amazon, and Brazil.
Territorial recognition and self-mapping
Among Malungu's initiatives, the organization works for the fulfillment of the right to territory, guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. The partnership with Tô no Mapa, through its work with the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) and the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN), stands out as a tool in the struggle for institutional recognition and territorial demarcation of quilombos (settlements of escaped slaves).
For Lidiane Vilhena, a member of the Quilombola Action and Resistance Nucleus of Campina, Marajó Island (PA), self-mapping of the territory is an important piece for guaranteeing the right to collective land title.
“Doing this work with the community, where they say where the territory begins and ends, identifying important places, conflict areas, and sacred and protected areas, only reinforces the relationship they have with their own territory, as a form of protection and care,” he comments.
In total, the quilombola technicians trained by Tô no Mapa, together with Malungu, carried out the self-mapping of 52 quilombola communities in 26 municipalities of Pará, in the regions of Ilha do Marajó, Guajarina, Tocantina, Northeast Pará and Lower Amazon. Some of these quilombola communities were not included on maps, which until then hindered access to and guarantee of some basic rights, such as public policies and territorial protection.
The registration workshops were an intense period of interaction, learning, and knowledge exchange to strengthen the fight for recognition and regularization. “We selected those communities that didn't yet have any mapping work done,” says Lidiane. Among the challenges that reflect the complexity and territorial vulnerability in Pará, such as Salvaterra in Marajó, are territorial overlap, invasions, armed conflicts, and mining. These problems are further aggravated by the lack of land titles, so the focus was on supporting communities that are at the beginning of the titling process.
Sensitive listening and exchange of knowledge
Beyond the mapping itself, some workshops also transformed into spaces for legal and administrative support for the communities. In Malungu's view, sensitive listening and the exchange of knowledge were extremely important in guiding the partnership with Tô no Mapa and the data collection with the communities.
Lidiane Vilhena, who is also a master's student in Anthropology and a social educator, points out that the meetings were important because they included people who actually knew the territories as well as those who only live there. “In this process, knowledge is passed on in a way that allows other people to learn more. This causes this knowledge to be multiplied and valued, especially by young people, who will be responsible for passing on knowledge about the territory to future generations,” reflects the educator.
“When we talk about territories, we are talking about an ancestral and sacred place. We are talking about our life and home, a place that connects us to the past, present, and future. Where we preserve our cultures, values, a place where we feel a sense of belonging, and this is what motivates us to fight for this territory to be titled and safeguarded, not only for today, but for all eternity.”
According to Lidiane, Malungu's partnership with Tô no Mapa was very well received in the territories.
“The communities were able to see themselves on the map, they were able to visualize everything that exists in their territories. And this only further strengthens the feeling of belonging, causing each quilombola community, through its association, to increasingly seek collective land titles and thus guarantee their maintenance.”
She says that other communities are looking forward to self-mapping, so they will have another tool to support their fight for the recognition of their territories. To learn more about Malungu's work, visit their official website.
Originally published on the Tô na Mapa website.