In Amazônia Secular, we portray the diversity of traditional peoples who have lived in the Amazon for centuries. Among them, we chose three populations: the riverside people (who live in stilt houses, where the rivers rise seasonally), the extractive peoples (who live inside the forest and live off its resources) and also the agricultural communities, the farmers… In particular, we wanted to portray the quilombola populations, also so present throughout Brazil, including the Amazon. In this experience, we wanted to show how much it is connected with biodiversity – they live off the resources of the forest, the rich biodiversity of the region and make their economy, their exchanges, trade, from that – as well as having testimonies from residents of these three communities present at the exhibition. So, in the center of the room, there is a representation of the ceiba pentandra, a gigantic tree found in the Amazon… And we wanted to bring a little bit of this ambience, of being able to listen to stories under the trees, which is already a very common action and is part of the affective imagination of many of us, being able to hear these stories about the daily life and economic practices of these traditional populations under our scenographic ceiba pentandra.

The Amazonas Secular room is dedicated to traditional communities that have lived in the forest for centuries. A very special aspect of this room is a large animation that occupies three walls. On the first screen, we can follow the way of life of a quilombola community.
On the second, the focus turns to a riverside community. On the third, the highlight goes to an extractive community.
The scenes show, for example, the different economic activities that are carried out in these places. This includes, among others, fishing, the production of cassava, pepper, mushrooms, the extraction of latex from rubber trees… We also aim to show in this animation how the presence of electric power and the arrival of new technologies as the internet may bring new prospects for these people, both from an economic point of view and in terms of access to education.
However, not all the changes presented in this animation are positive. Climate change has altered the rainfall regime in the region. And that consequently alters the flooding of the rivers. As a result, communities living on the banks of these rivers need to build higher and higher houses to prevent their homes from being flooded. The changes that have been affecting the Amazon rainforest will be discussed in more depth in the next room: Amazônia Acelerada.

It is important to point out that in the Amazon region there are currently around 20 million Brazilians, who are riverside people, extractivists and traditional communities that have a rich culture. This population protects the forest, as they depend on it to live. They learned to sustainably derive their livelihoods from the rivers and the forest, without destroying it. Sometimes it is small farmers who maintain soil fertility using techniques learned over time. They live in the forest without destroying it and without polluting the rivers on which they all depend.