Project

in the villages

Rio de Janeiro

2014

Presentation and Project Description The LowConstrutores Descalzos Caravan is a project of permaculture design, natural building, agroforestry and environmental education aimed to spread this knowledge through courses, lectures and experiences throughout Brazil. We believe that with the use of communication, creativity, intuition and technologies appropriate to each site, we can design and build sustainably in many places.

Natural building workshop

Project LowConstrutores in the Villages The project `LowConstrutores in the Villages` aimes for the exchange of knowledge among Brazilian indigenous communities encouraging their cultural traditions, such as the construction using local materials, handicrafts with local raw materials and agriculture without pesticides.However this project also suggests and implements sustainable solutions to currents problems in the villages, such as water contamination and pollution through waste. The project aimes for the residence of instructors of LowConstrutores for a period of 2 months in an indigenous village , along with the people, to recognize problems, develop, present and implement solutions within the principles of their ancestral culture and *Permaculture. Our goal is to make this creation of work by the end of the process an successful exchange of 2 cultures, recorded through photos and videos. *Permaculture seeks to design human settlements that work in harmony with the ecosystem that sustains them, as well as to study natural cycles, the microclimate and patterns of each place. Developing for example techniques for efficient agroecology , building a healthy environment and biological filters for the treatment of water.To care for the earth, people and to share profits are the principles of Permaculture.

LowConstrutores in the village LAGO LINDO The village Lago Lindo is located in the municipality of Jordao, State Acre, in the indigenous land of Kaxinawa in the area Tarauaca. The HUNI KUIN as the Kaxinawa call themselves have a population of over 10,000 people and are spread over 32 villages by the boarder of Peru and Acre.They are involved in many cultural and ethnographic projects as an appreciation of their culture like through their festival XINA BENA.

LowConstrutores between tourists and Huni Kuins at the

III Xinã Bena Festival at the village Lago Lindo, June - 2013

The festival is held in LAGO LINDO for the last 3 years. This is a time when tourists from around the world and HUNI KUINS from different villages gather to celebrate their cultural practices such as dances, songs, rituals, preparing typical foods and handicrafts and traditional bodypaintings. LAGO LINDO is a village that receives a steady stream of visitors and aims to call itself a center of culture HUNI KUIN. Therefore a special infrastructure is required to make this interaction in its best possible way working- so the village and visitors can benefit.

Women and children carring water to the village Chemical products being used to wash clothes and

dishes

Some of the main difficulties in Lago Lindo is the access of drinking water and the pollution of lake that gives name to the village. For washing dishes and clothes chemical soaps are used, which is a factor of removing fish and alligators which are part of their diet. Water is the key to maintain and renew cycles of life. The lack of knowledge makes the spread of infectious diseases occur, such as cholera; which makes both ,Indian and visitors sick. At the request of the leaders of the village, the project `LowConstrutores in the Villages` is developing enforced actions that contribute to the portability, water treatment and sanitation in the village Lago Lindo. This will be done through measures that respect the principles of permaculture and culture Huni Kuin

OBJECTIVES For the project ` LowConstrutores in the Villages`, we seek to lift up the sustainable cultural practices of indigenous Brazilian reality, which is essential for the survival of their cultures. Furthermore, we aim to aggregate knowledge and practices of modern sustainability through practical projets of environmental education.This also leads to solutions to the problems between indigenous and non-indigenous, generated by the inevitable merger. For 2 months we will be in Lake Village Lindo, presenting these specific objectives:

Identification of the environmental problems of the village and development of a management plan for these solutions based on the principles of their culture and permaculture;

Development and implementation of a specific plan for treatment and accessibility of water;

Registering and filming through videos, photos and texts of all the sustainable practices of the Huni Kuin, like building with local materials and organic farming;

Producing a film about cultural exchange lived throughout this period of exchange of knowledge, which serves like recording and dissemination of the culture Huni Kuin. This will be coproduced by a camerateam of LowConstrutores, and Huni Kuins;

Daily routine of the Huni Kuin to get water in the Lago Lindo Village

BACKGROUND Over the last year we were invited to perform permaculture work in different villages of Brazil . We been a month in the village Lago Lindo along with their leaders. In this time we recognized the need and the potential of such a project . Permaculture is based on the appreciation of the skills and knowledge of traditional communities, which becomes an important part of this practice. To learn these techniques with the Indians is both a great learning opportunity for those working with permaculture as well as a way to encourage the indigenous people to spread this knowledge for future generations within their communities .

Casas de madeira e palha na Aldeia Lago Lindo Cestaria de palha de palmeira – Técnica tradicional

Our individual and collective experience in projects of bio-construction , ecological

agriculture and environmental education gives us support for the implementation of this project , as well as contact and experience we already have with the indigenous reality and especially with the Village Lago Lindo of the tribe HUNI KUIN.

HOW WILL THE VILLAGE BENEFIT WITH THIS PROJECT ? The Village Lago Lindo will benefit from the presence of the project of LowConstrutores in the Villages with :

The development of a management plan with permaculture solutions for environmental difficulties encountered in the village. .

The implementation of measures to improve the quality and accessibility of water treatment .

The implementation of a plan of teaching environmental awareness through films , games and workshops that work with the elements present in the permaculture management plan of the village .

The production of a film that portrays the daily life of the village and to serve as a disclosure of their material culture .

The donation of tools and building materials used in the project .

Improving the infrastructure to receive visitors , both during the festivals and the cultural projects developed throughout the year .

FUTURE PROJECTS The purpose of the project ` LowConstrutores in the Villages` is to be continued in other villages always working according to the environmental characteristics and the problems presented in each of them . The same method , which relies on the active participation of Indians in the project , will be used in other villages as well as the photographic record of these experiences .

STAFF Five members with complementary skills and experiences related to permaculture will be chosen through a selection process.

BUDGET Transport for the team from Rio De Janeiro-Rio Branco-Rio De Janeiro ------------------------------------------------------ R$ 5.000 5 planetickets Rio Branco-Jordao-Rio Branco -------------------------------------------------- R$ 4.000 Patrol for the boat, boatdriver and generator ------------------------------------------------- R$ 1.000 Tools and materials for the construction -------------------------------------------------------- R$ 8.000 Help of costs for 5 members of LowConstrutores for 2 months --------------------------- R$ 8.000 Alimentation of the team for 2 months --------------------------------------------------------- R$ 4.000 TOTAL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- R$ 30.000