Indigenous women authors and the writings of the body of the earth

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on how the field of oral poetics, both in its theoretical and epistemological debate and in its forms of expression and sociocultural production, contributes to a consideration of the identity and cultural construction of the indigenous peoples of Brazil. Particularly, it explores the ways in which oral poetics expands the means and materialities inscribed in the ways of accessing, experiencing, producing, and circulating the experiences of the sensible world. In this sense, we take as a theme the forced appropriation of the Portuguese language in oral and written expressions imposed on the native peoples of the Brazilian territory and its conversion into an instrument for claiming their rights, incorporated into ancestral voices to contemplate the fables produced by indigenous peoples through the conceptual image of printed writing transformed into new “combat weapons.” To achieve this, we briefly delve into the poetic production of Denízia Kawany Fulkaxó, or Denízia Cruz, as she signs in her books, aiming to highlight one of the many possibilities for critical reflection on how the writings of indigenous peoples establish dialogue with non-indigenous people, provoking creative approaches and transformations in both language and appropriated culture.

Keywords: linguistic appropriation; artistic production of the indigenous peoples; Denízia Cruz.