The color red: Fighting with flowers and fruits in Xavante territory, Central Brazil

Abstract

This article is about the emotional and artistic reactions of indigenous children of the Xavante people in a village of the "Terra Indígena" Sangradouro (Matto Grosso, Brazil) to the extremely brutal assassination, decapitation and dismemberment of the local Xavante elder Joaquim Maradezuro by a family member of owners of great soy bean plantations and his men in April 2003. Some months later, within the program"Flowers and Fruits of the Brazilian Savannah in the Daily Lives and Cuisine of the Xavante People", the children made drawings with color pencils and crayons of those events and their consequences for the social space, environment and collective memory of the Xavante. Flowers, fruits, sprouts, seeds and also the land, formerly colored by them at school in green, yellow, blue and brown, now were painted in varying tones of red, representing the elder’s blood covering the area. With the background of common mourning and active resistance of the Xavante, as well as their active measures against the fazendeiro family, in mind, and inserting the drawings in an oral narrative of the tragic events given by two young artists, the contribution discusses the metaphorical role of flowers, fruits and plants in the drawings as weapons used to fight against the violation of the right to life.