Indigenous people and interested and engaged audiences were invited to speak about the main contributions in the fields of arts and culture to strengthening the narratives by and about Indigenous peoples in Brazil.

Contemporary indigenous art, multiple Indigenous cinemas and indigenous literature were some of the artistic expressions identified as “very strong marks”, “which have changed the country’s cultural scene” in the last decade, although some interviewees questioned this division between life and culture. art, without much meaning for the Indigenous people.

The artistic expressions of Indigenous peoples were described as “a vast, complex, and ancient universe to produce various meanings” and as a “powerful antidote against the many crises we are experiencing, including the crisis of imagination”.

Ailton Krenak, a frequently cited name, was described as one of the most important thinkers and intellectuals of Brazil. One of his books, “Ideas for Postponing the End of the World” has sold over 120,000 copies, and has been translated into nine languages in addition to Portuguese — English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Turkish, and Czech. “Ailton Krenak has a very powerful voice, and his discourse is able to dismantle our language. They dominated our language, and now they destroy our voice with our language.”

"The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman" by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert was also well remembered. “‘The Fall of Heaven’ is the greatest of all landmarks. Davi Kopenawa takes the place of an anthropologist. You are invited to enter the world of Yanomami cosmology, their place in the world, but also the place of white people in the world (...). Sometimes we think of native peoples' narratives as something from the past, but the book contains an extremely contemporary dramatic force.”

Some interviewees described the work of the Indigenous writers as fundamental for the dissemination of Indigenous cultures among Brazilian society. Daniel Munduruku, Kaká Werá, Olívio Jekupé, and Eliane Potiguara were described as pioneers in textual Indigenous literature, a phenomenon that started in the 1990s, and is seen as another outcome of the 1988 Constitution. Daniel Munduruku has written over 50 books; he was described as someone committed to “bringing many others along with him”. Three of his works were short-listed for the 2021 Jabuti Prize, and he was nominated for a seat at the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL).

Indigenous and non-Indigenous respondents pointed out the contribution made by Vincent Carelli, a well-known French-Brazilian anthropologist, indigenist, and documentary filmmaker, that opened doors for multiple Indigenous cinema expressions in Brazil. In 1987, Vincent Carelli created a non-governmental organisation named Vídeo nas Aldeias [Video in the Villages] to produce audio-visual material and train Indigenous filmmakers. Vídeo nas Aldeias, which celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2021, has a unique, precious, and historic collection of images about Indigenous peoples in Brazil, still to be digitalized and categorized.

The existence not of one, but of a ‘variety of Indigenous cinemas' was something mentioned by engaged audiences, especially Indigenous artists, anthropologists, and curators. Audio-visual productions made by Indigenous peoples portray their lives, and, therefore, will vary according to each ethnicity. Cinema made by Indigenous people was also mentioned as an important political tool for claiming rights and making a record of their ancestry, territories, and orality, and as a new aesthetic and languages in Brazilian documentary making.

Some respondents highlighted the public's interest in Indigenous films, using as examples works that are widely available on the web, such as “The Hyperwomen”, by Carlos Fausto, Takumã Kuikuro, and Leonardo Sette; and “House of Spirits”, by Morzaniel Yanomami — both with more than 1 million views on YouTube.

Films directed by non-Indigenous people, such as “Piripkura” and, more recently, “Fever” and “The Last Forest”, were described as very sensitive in the way that they portray the Indigenous universe to wider audiences.

Television shows, series, and other entertainment productions, such as “Falas da Terra” and “Aruanas”, were described as “much needed”, “essential” for communicating outside the bubble and speaking to the masses. “We need to prioritise entertainment. People want to have fun, and not just learn — but they can learn a lot by thinking they're just having fun.”

The emergence of contemporary Indigenous art was highlighted not only for its immense creativity, beauty, and sophistication, but also for challenging hegemonic narratives and languages; for questioning and highlighting historical deletions from an Indigenous perspective; and for stressing and expanding the very concept of art, with practices based on collectivity, ancestry, and Indigenous cosmovisions.

Artists such as Jaider Esbell and Denilson Baniwa were widely cited, as was “Véxoa: We Know”, the first exhibition of Indigenous art at the São Paulo Pinacoteca, curated by researcher and artist educator Naine Terena. In addition to the São Paulo Pinacoteca, the most cited institutions and cultural initiatives were the Pipa Prize, SESC, Itaú Cultural, the Goethe Institute, and the Moreira Salles Institute (IMS).

In February 2022, the Paranaense Museum (MUPA) promoted decolonial reflections on its own archive, and invited contemporary Indigenous artists Denilson Baniwa and Gustavo Caboco to head a project called “Image Revival”. Brazil’s Modern Art Week in 1922 has been revisited from Indigenous standpoints at various events organised around the country.

A smaller group of people mentioned street art and decolonial collages by and about Indigenous peoples as one of the most important developments, which are also gaining more space in Brazil. The CURA public art festival has been held in Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais, since 2017. It is one of the largest of its kind in the country. The tallest gable-end murals in Latin America ever painted by women were produced under CURA, including the first one painted by an Indigenous woman, “Mother Forest of the Boy River” by Daiara Tukano.

The Indigenous music scene was mentioned occasionally, although it has only hit social networks and wider stages in recent years. The main emerging names include Brô MCs, the first Indigenous rap band in Brazil, which will feature in Rock in Rio in 2022; and Kaê Guajajaraz, who released her first album in 2021: “Kwarahy Tazyr”. In 2021, the worldly famous DJ Alok recorded musical creation processes with Indigenous people that will become a TV series called “Future is Ancestral”, expected to launch in 2022.

Theatre and photography were even less mentioned than music, and the two most cited artists were Juão Nyn, who connects the Indigenous universe to LGBTQIA+ themes in his work “Tybyra”; and Uýra, a contemporary Indigenous artist, biologist, and educator who defines herself as a ‘The walking tree'. A Theatre and Indigenous Peoples (TePI) digital platform was launched in late 2021. It highlights the importance of Indigenous artistic protagonism in its expression and representation, treats theatre in its diversity of forms, and values the human body for its aesthetic and political power.