Documentary on Indigenous Women's Resistance in the Big City to Have a Preview Screening in the Capital

The lives of Indigenous women who live between their village and the big city are the central theme of the documentary “Kaguateka: Those Who Resist,” directed by Gleycielli Nonato Guató. The premiere screening will be free and will take place at the Água Bonita Urban Village this Thursday (25) at 7:30 p.m. in Campo Grande.

The production received funding from the Federal Government’s PNAB (Aldir Blanc National Policy), through the MinC (Ministry of Culture), with a call for proposals administered by the Campo Grande City Government through Fundac (Municipal Culture Foundation).

The film follows the stories of Indigenous women who left their ancestral territories to live in an urban center without losing their traditions, identities, languages, dances, and worldviews. One of the documentary’s protagonists is Mirian Marcos Tsibodowapré, a Terena indigenous woman from the Taunay Ipegue Indigenous Territory.

Mirim currently lives in Campo Grande and says she was invited by the production team about a year ago to join the project precisely because she had made the transition from village life to urban life. 

For her, the documentary shows how life in the city brings differences and challenges, but does not sever ties with her ancestral culture. 

“Even in the city, we don’t stop being Indigenous; we maintain our culture, our language, our dance, and our worldview,” she says. 

She comes from a family of Indigenous leaders, such as her uncles Marcos Terena and Domingos Marcos—founders of the country’s first Indigenous organization, the Union of Indigenous Nations—and her mother, Mada Terena, one of the key organizers of the Indigenous movement in the capital.

Today, Mirian is dedicated to the struggle for the rights of Indigenous women and for spaces of inclusion and respect. “We suffer twice as much prejudice, because we are both women and Indigenous. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible,” she adds, describing the documentary as “a record of real-life experiences” that aims to bring the public closer to the reality of Indigenous life in an urban setting.

MS Comitê de Cultura

The project received technical assistance from the Mato Grosso do Sul Culture Committee (Comitê de Cultura), a body affiliated with the National Program of Culture Committees, which supports cultural agents, artists, and cultural practitioners in developing and structuring projects through the civil society organization Associação Flor e Espinho.

“Projects like Kaguateka demonstrate the importance of having qualified technical support so that stories—such as those of Indigenous women in an urban context—can move beyond the drawing board and reach the public. This is the kind of work the MS Comitê de Cultura aims to do: providing the technical means to make projects viable—projects that often have potential but need support in their structuring to qualify for cultural grants,” says Nair Gavilan, director of Flor e Espinho Teatro e Produtora and facilitator of the MS Comitê de Cultura. 

Suzie Vito, director of the Kaguateka project, highlights the importance of the Comitê de Cultura to the community behind the initiative. “The Committee has been and remains very important to us because we don’t have internet access; technology isn’t easily accessible within the community itself, so in that sense, the work carried out on our behalf—as Indigenous people—is very important,” she notes. 

In addition to “Kaguateka,” another 54 projects received support from the Mato Grosso do Sul Comitê de Cultura during the first cycle of the Aldir Blanc Law for state and municipal calls for proposals. Of the more than 50 projects supported, 39 were approved.