The lands invaded more than 500 years ago by the Portuguese
and occupied for 200 years by the Brazilian civil-military-corporatist State
have also been occupied by countless communities
that don’t rely on protections or services from this State.
In fact,
they are often seen as obstacles to it.
Autonomous and indigenous communities, quilombos, favelas.
Each with their own culture, technology and science.
With their own research methodologies, languages
and methods of information transmission,
the native wisdom of a whole continent has remained alive and in constant transformation
– before, during and after the contact with the European invaders,
who tried to dominate and exploit the resources and knowledge
of all this diversity.
As anarchists, when we seek knowledge we often
go back to European theorists,
who were dedicated to writing with ink on paper,
using the language of dominant empires.
Even if this knowledge finds practical and living examples
in communities on this side of the ocean,
we access it through a dominant system
of intellectual, academic and colonial property.
When we turn to the living concepts
and practices of the native peoples
of the lands currently occupied by the Brazilian State,
we do not do it out of curiosity for the exotic,
or with an ethnic, historical or anthropological approach,
but because they offer a foundation for communal living.
Over the years, through the colonial school system,
we have studied while looking out to sea, bowing to colonizers,
as we were taught to despise the thoughts and practices
that made life here possible.
When we face the continent, the hinterlands,
we find the foundations for ways of living
that protect life in its diversity.
One of these is very common within this territory.
The 'puxirum', as it is called by some peoples,
or 'moitará' by others,
which has gradually become
what we call 'mutirão' in Portuguese.
We are surprised when we see that few Latin or Saxon languages
have translations for something that seems so familiar to us.
The Quechua people call it 'minga';
in the territories occupied by the Mexican state,
a similar idea is called 'tequio'.
It is the idea of mutual support
through community or family organisation in each region.
When someone needs a house,
the whole community pitches in to build it.
For many native peoples,
puxirum is one of the main festivities,
helping to build temples or houses.
It is the principle of cooperation, of operating together, put into practice.
This principle has had a profound influence on non-indigenous culture.
In the countryside of Goiás, for example,
they practice "treição".
When friends, relatives and neighbours
organize themselves in secret
and arrive at someone's house by surprise,
with a serenade, and a willingness to help
with field work, construction work,
or other necessary tasks throughout the day.
Those who host a mutirão
often welcome the people with a party, music or food,
turning this moment into a joyful act of appreciation.
It is something that resembles less what we acknowledge as work
and more like a dance or a game.
When colonizers met the indigenous peoples,
they could not see the separation between work and play.
How was it possible to build a house without raising one's voice?
Opening a field without cracking a whip?
Why did children have fun doing what in Latin languages
is called "work", or "torture"?
Mutirão is one of the answers.
Mutirão is not only about carrying out a task.
It is also a way of having fun and passing on knowledge to younger people,
it is a way of celebrating life that also strengthens communities.
If we view work as a celebration, where no obligation is imposed,
it becomes more enjoyable to engage and to contribute.
And since knowledge has no boundaries,
why not learn by doing?
Learning together?
And thus, building the autonomy that will ultimately make the State obsolete.