Ambassador and Barbara Sobel with Guarani kids

São Paulo, April 27, 2007 -- Ambassador Sobel spoke about the important contributions of Native Americans in the United States and Brazil at the opening of the key event of the Shared Heritage Festival, the performance of U.S. and Brazilian Native American dance troops. This performance was the crowning event of a weeklong festival that involved seminars, an art exhibit, photography exhibit, culinary classes, documentary film showings and art and dance workshops. U.S. participants included the Tewa Dancers, artist Michael Kabotie, photographer Walter Bigbee, and chef Nephi Craig. Seminar participants included the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Community and Constituent Services Director James Pepper Henry, journalist Mary Kim Titla and editor-in-chief of the Tribal Law Journal, Christine Zuni Cruz.

1) The Shared Heritage Festival at Senac 2) Brazilian and American Indigenous Representatives

Gastronomy, Art and Film

The Shared Heritage festival was organized by the U.S. Consulate in Sao Paulo and Senac University with the support of the Brazilian Instituto das Tradições Indígenas - Ideti [Indigenous Traditions Institute – IDETI] and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). It is the second edition of the Shared Heritage festival, the first in 2005 having featured the shared African heritage of the United States and Brazil.  As with the 2005 festival, this year’s Shared Indigenous Heritage festival contributed to the exchange of information and perceptions between Brazilians and Americans about peoples who have contributed to our respective cultures. To show the Indian influence in gastronomy, Chef Nephi Craig, a son of Apache and Navajo Indians and the founder of the Native American Culinary Association, an organization dedicated to the research, development and preservation of Native American cuisine, gave demonstration classes to students and others at three Centro Universitário Senac campuses  Craig learned about the culinary traditions of Brazilian indigenous communities through Ms. Yone Yamassaki, chef of Surui, a São Paulo restaurant.

Michael Kabotie, an American artist born in the Hopi Indian community located in the state of Arizona, specializes in lithography, serigraphy, and engraving. Kabotie conducted a series of workshops and painted a panel with three Brazilian Karajá Indians, Daniel Coxini, José Harioma Karajá, and Josué Birihoa Karajá. This work will be exhibited at São Paulo Senac campus from April 17 to May 5.

Ambassador Sobel and his wife meet  Abraham Szajman and his son and the chefs Nephi Craig and Yone Yamassaki	Michael Kabotie and Daniel Coxini

National and international documentaries and shorts featured the cultures of the two countries. Among the films provided by the U.S. National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), the Brazilian Instituto das Tradições Indígenas (Ideti), and by the authors themselves, there was a movie produced by the Central-Western Xavante community of Brazil. A´Uwê Uptabi – O Povo Brasileiro [A´Uwê Uptabi − The Brazilian People], released in 1998, tells the story of the first contacts of the Xavante people with the warazu (white men) in the 1940s. The picture also shows contemporary Indian ceremonies and daily life in the village. The American pictures included, for example, documentaries about rituals and traditions of some Indian tribes, such as The Havasupai, released in 2005, showing Native people who live in isolation in the Grand Canyon and preserve their language and a strong sense of community.

Native American Dennis Zotigh performing the hoop dance

The Seminar

Ailton Krenak, a Brazilian painter and also special adviser on indigenous matters to the Minas Gerais state government, and Christine Zuni Cruz, editor-in-chief of the Tribal Law Journal, provided an overview of indigenous issues in the history of the two cultures. The Karajá Indian Severiá Idioriê, a teacher of Portuguese, and Mary Kim Titla, the first Native American TV reporter in Arizona and creator of the website Native Youth Magazine, talked about the treatment of indigenous issues in the media. The last discussion panel addressed the challenges related to territory and cultural identity, with the participation of Azelene Inácio, a member of the Kaingang people (from the State of Rio Grande do Sul) and the winner of the 2006 National Human Rights Prize for the category Advocacy of Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights, and James Pepper Henry, a member of the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma and Muscogee Creek Nation, and director of Community and Constituent Services at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The discussions were mediated by Jurandir Siridiwê Xavante, president of Ideti.

  1) The Tewa Dancers in the Buffalo dance; 2) Tewa Dancers and the Eagle Dance; 3) Members of the National Museum of the American Indian with Brazilian indians; 4) Mary Tim Titla poses with Brazilian indians 

Exhibitions, Music and Dance

Besides the exhibition of the panel painted by the Karajá Indians and Michael Kabotie, the festival exhibited ten oil on wood paintings by Minas Gerais painter Ailton Krenak.

Karajá Indians perform Brazilian dances

Festival participants enjoyed images of Native culture in both countries through the photographs taken by Walter Bigbee, a Comanche from the U.S., and Caimi Waiassé Xavante from Brazil. The two photographers participated in an exchange program. While Bigbee came to Brazil to capture on film the influence of the indigenous culture in São Paulo, where he visited three Guarani communities (Tenondé Porã, Krukutu, and Jaraguá), the Xavante Indian took photographs of the Seminole people’s Indian reservation in Florida.

The exhibition also features photos by Centro Universitário Senac photography students and Indians of the Tenondé Porá village who participated in a workshop with Bigbee last March. Their thirty-five black and white pictures will be exhibited at Santo Amaro Campus until May 5.

Samples of photo exhibit by photographer Walter Bigbee at Senac Campus

The festival Herança compartilhada: a presença indígena no Brasil e nos EUA closed with musical and dance performances. Six dancers from the Native American group Tewa Dancers from the North, founded in 1975, performed for the first time in Brazil. A group from the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) also performed a variety of Native American dances. Karajá and Guarani Indians performed Brazilian indigenous traditional dances and  songs.

Bertioga, Manaus and Campo Grande

Tewa Dancers member opens Festival in Bertioga with Brazilian Indian 

As April 19th marks the Brazilian National Indigenous Culture day, the U.S. Native American visitors continued their celebration of the U.S. and Brazil's shared indigenous heritage through participating in Bertioga’s VII National Indian Festival.  In addition to dance and music presentations, the U.S. visitors delivered lectures on topics such as current challenges for maintaining the culture indigenous heritage in the US, the image of indigenous people in the U.S. media, indigenous social projects to combat drug and alcoholism abuse among indigenous youth in the U.S. and the activities of the Museum of the American Indian. Journalist Mary Kim Titla also traveled to the city of Manaus in the state of Amazonas and staff of the Smithsonian traveled to the city of Campo Grande in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul to meet with staff at Campo Grande's Dom Bosco Museum of Cultures, to discuss the establishment of an institutional linkage between the two organizations.