Resisting: Karaiw a’e wà (The Civilized)

Karaiw a’e wà (The Civilized) examines contemporary indigenous identities and living experiences amidst historical erasure of Indigenous knowledge, technologies, and livelihood practices, as well as the ongoing struggles for radical industrialisation and ecological exploitation.
Zahy Tentehar (1989, Cana Brava, Maranhão, Brazil) is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, actor, and activist from the Tentehar-Guajajara people. Interweaving dialogue in her first language, Ze’eng Eté—a dialect of the Tupi-Guarani trunk—and Portuguese, Guajajara’s video works examine contemporary indigenous identities and experiences amidst ongoing struggles for land rights and against ecological exploitation in the aftermath of colonial invasion.

Tackling issues of hybridity, assimilation, autonomy, and techno-centric civilization, Guajajara’s Karaiw a’e wà (The Civilized) (2022) considers Indigenous Futurism as a methodology for countering the historical erasure of indigenous knowledge, technologies, and creative forms.