Printed materials with the Guajajara and Awá Guajá peoples, for ISPN

The Caru and Pindaré Indigenous Lands, in Maranhão, suffer invasions for logging, hunting, fishing and farming. Those who come in are usually small farmers without access to public policies, often pushed by large landowners. After two workshops in which the Guajajara, who call themselves Tenetehara, told this reality in drawings and comics, ISPN needed to turn this material into pieces that would denounce the invasions and, at the same time, build empathy and an alliance with the neighbors.

We digitized and treated the drawings and built a visual identity shared by the two Indigenous lands, without mixing each one's illustrations. The drawings took center stage: the jaguar and the guardian couple on the Caru T-shirt, the women's circle surrounded by swallows in Pindaré, native fruits and plants on the tote bags, with phrases in the Tenetehara language.

The booklet brings together the comics from the workshops. The banners retrace the workshops' journey with photos and captions, and the poster sums up the message to stay with the surrounding population after the meetings. The language avoids blaming the farmers and invites them to see themselves as partners in protecting the territory.

The same approach was later applied to a health-related set, with posters, T-shirts and tote bags for Guajajara Caru, Guajajara Pindaré and Awá Guajá. The Indigenous participants reviewed the materials before printing, and they were made for Indigenous women to take to meetings with farmers, union members and students.

The materials were reviewed by the Indigenous participants themselves, by Funai, the federal Indigenous affairs agency, and by Vale, and Indigenous women use them in their meetings.