Awakening Terena Ceramics: Memory, Territory, and Spiritual Reconstruction in Aldeia Kopenoti

Abstract

This presentation discusses the revival of ancestral ceramic practices in Aldeia Kopenoti, located in the Araribá Indigenous Territory in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Led by Indigenous artist and researcher Irineu Nje’a Terena, the initiative Argila nas Mãos – Memória Viva Terena (Clay in the Hands – Living Terena Memory), launched in 2021, seeks to reactivate ceramic knowledge historically transmitted among Terena women across generations but interrupted after the forced migrations of Terena communities to São Paulo during the twentieth century. The project is based on the understanding that technical and spiritual knowledge may remain embedded in collective memory even after long periods of interruption. In 2024, Irineu undertook a residency in the Terra Indígena Cachoeirinha, in Mato Grosso do Sul, where he learned ceramic practices from Terena master potters of the villages Argola and Mãe Terra. This experience led to the creation of an inter-village exchange that brought these women potters to Aldeia Kopenoti to transmit their knowledge directly to the community. The encounter produced profound emotional and spiritual responses. For the elders of Kopenoti, the return of ceramic making evoked memories of their ancestral territories in Mato Grosso do Sul, generating a collective process of remembrance and mourning associated with displacement. During the workshops, participants described moments of deep emotional release, referred to as the “ritual of lacrimosa,” understood as a form of spiritual reconnection with ancestors and with the land.

Within this context, ceramics became part of a broader movement of cultural and spiritual reconstruction. The revival of pottery is intertwined with the reactivation of the Terena house of prayer and healing, a process initiated in 2020 and currently led by Irineu and Nanda Terena. Ceramic practice thus operates simultaneously as artistic production, cultural transmission, and a process of healing and collective renewal.  Objects produced during the workshops were incorporated into the permanent collection of the Museu Ponto de Memória Balbino Sebastião, inaugurated in 2026. These works embody the continuity of Terena memory and knowledge and were created with the support of the international research project Decay without Mourning – Future Thinking Heritage Practices. Through this experience, the revival of ceramics demonstrates that Indigenous heritage is not only preserved through objects but continually reactivated through practice, emotion, and community relationships. For the Terena people of Aldeia Kopenoti, clay becomes a medium through which ancestral memory returns to the hands of the community, enabling new generations to reconnect with their history while imagining Indigenous futures.