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Rio de Janeiro, Sep 9 (EFE).- Brazilian literature, which for centuries has been published locally almost exclusively in Portuguese, will become increasingly available in Indian languages as part of an initiative to protect endangered tongues.
The project, launched by the Education Ministry and the Federal University of Minas Gerais, entails an initial publication and distribution of 22 titles in various indigenous languages.
The Indian communities that will benefit from the initiative live in the states of Mato Grosso, Pernambuco and Minas Gerais, as well as in Parque de Xingu, an immense reserve in the Amazon region.
The project, for which the government earmarked a million reais (some $415,000), encompasses books written by Indians themselves in the Maxacali, Ikpengue, Tapirare, Funio, Xavante and Bororo languages.
"What's new is that they are not primers in indigenous languages, which already exist, but poems, tales, myths, histories, essays ... texts that are more literary than educational, and all written by indigenous authors," the Education Ministry's coordinator for Indian school instruction, Kleber Mattos, told EFE.
The Ministry commissioned the books from Indians studying at Minas Gerais Federal University, an institution that began to train indigenous teachers 10 years ago and has already graduated three classes.
Grouped according to language, the education students will enjoy the freedom to write whatever they want about whichever topic they choose.
"Our goal is to reinforce reading in indigenous languages. Since 1994, we have had readers for beginning students, but there have been no literary works to offer those who already read in their native tongues," he added.
According to Mattos, the Education Ministry's literacy efforts are often wasted because if new readers have nothing available to read in their own languages they will forget what they learned.
Despite the project's educational objective, this is the first time that Brazil, a country of 220 different Indian peoples grouped into 3,500 villages, has a concrete project to stimulate indigenous literature in indigenous languages.
"There are already some works by Indian authors in their native tongues, but they are isolated and sponsored by non-governmental organizations," Daniel Munduruku, head of the Brazilian Indigenous Institute for Intellectual Property, told EFE.
"What most abounds is indigenous literature in Portuguese and some bilingual publications," Munduruku added.
The greatest problem is that because the Indian communities are very small, print runs have to be small and the subjects very specific, making any initiative costly and commercially unviable.
"In addition, indigenous authors are interested in writing in Portuguese in order to reach a broad readership. They want their communities and their stories to be known elsewhere, and for that they need to publish in Portuguese," Munduruku said.
Mattos explained that in 1995, the government pledged to teach all Indians to read in their native tongues and that, ironically, means that some Indian schools use Portuguese, because many children are most proficient in that tongue.
According to Education Ministry statistics, Brazil has 147,000 Indian students in 2,228 special schools. Of nearly 7,500 teachers, 90 percent are Indian.
The percentage of students is high for a country in which the indigenous population is estimated to barely total 450,000 living in villages.
"The possibility of publishing literary works in indigenous languages will allow that population to preserve its knowledge, endow its literature with a new means of expression, not just oral, and reflect on its existence," Munduruku said. EFE
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