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Systematising the information regarding the Kamayurá collection kept at the Portuguese National Museum of Ethnology (NME), in Lisbon, is one of the first tasks for project ‘InDigit: The indigenous peoples of the South American Lowlands and the digital transition in European museums’, starting in September.
‘There are photographs that have no contextual information,’ explains principal investigator (PI) Rodrigo Lacerda (CRIA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST). Collecting scattered data and materials is therefore a priority, in order to obtain ‘the most solid information possible’.
The collection of the Kamayurá indigenous people, inhabitants of the Upper Xingu, Brazil, consists of 40 objects, more than 200 photographs and two film recordings. The objects are minimally identified, have been professionally photographed and are available, with some additional information, on the Matriz digital platform for the inventory, management and dissemination of cultural assets. The photographs produced by Françoise and Victor Bandeira (1931-2024) during their stay with the Kamayurá are neither organised nor identified.
This collection was put together by art collector and frequent MNE collaborator Victor Bandeira and his wife at the time, Françoise Bandeira, in November 1964, during an expedition to South America, carried out at the request of Jorge Dias, then director of the museum, with the aim of creating a collection on the indigenous peoples of Brazil.
Among other things, it will be necessary to identify the photographs actually relating to the Kamayurá, duplicate images and the contextual information obtained from other sources, such as exhibition catalogues. The photographs, scanned in 2002 using prints, will have to be rescanned from the original colour slides in order to update their quality. The two film recordings have been converted into digital format and are available on MNE’s YouTube channel. Redigitising them will not be possible as part of this project.
It will also be necessary to analyse the information about Bandeira’s visit to the Kamayurá by organising testimonies collected by the PI and other members of the team, newspaper articles, books and catalogues.
The non-use of images from the collection of the Kamayurá indigenous people at the National Museum of Ethnology at the initial stage of InDigit’s communication is due to the fact that the project is trying to find out, among other things, whether, according to the Kamayurá, these images can be disseminated, and if so, which ones and in what context.
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IN2PAST – Associate Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Heritage, Arts, Sustainability and Territory is funded by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P. under reference LA/P/0132/2020 (DOI 10.54499/LA/P/0132/2020)
