Tensões Mundiais

Navegante Tremembé is an Indigenous woman born in 1960 in Itarema, on the coast of Ceará. She lives in Aldeia Varjota, within the Tremembé Indigenous Territory of Almofala. For over 40 years, she has depicted life, daily routines, beauty, and nature, using Toá—a natural pigment— in her paintings. Her diverse colors stem from geological interactions, bearing witness to the Tremembé presence in Almofala. Navegante's paintings carry ancestral knowledge and her connection to the land; her deep memory and connection to the enchanted beings make the artist a Guardian of the Tremembé People. From a young age, she learned from her elders that "colored clay released a very beautiful honey-like substance." Her art illuminates and brings joy to homes, schools, galleries, and museums in Brazil and around the world. In 2025, she was nominated for the PIPA Award for contemporary art. She dreams that future generations will continue to paint with Toá to strengthen the struggle for the Land and the Tremembé Territory of Almofala, which has been awaiting demarcation since 1996. Without a demarcated territory, there is no protected mangrove, no clay, nor the Toá, nor the ancestral landscapes of the Tremembé universe, so deeply portrayed in this artist's work.