Constitution is translated for the first time into indigenous language
Thirty-five years after its promulgation, the Brazilian Constitution was translated for the first time into an indigenous language: Nheengatu. The new version was unveiled in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in Amazonas state, in a ceremony held Wednesday (Jul. 19) at the headquarters of the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Rio Negro.
Present at the event, Supreme Court Chief Justice Rosa Weber said the translation marks a historic moment. “Translating the Constitution into an native tongue is a symbol of our commitment to ensuring that all indigenous peoples have access to justice and the knowledge of the laws that govern our country, thus strengthening their participation in political, social, economic, and legal life,” she declared.
Sponsored by the Supreme Court and the National Council of Justice, the work is signed by a group of 15 indigenous people from the Upper Rio Negro and Middle Tapajós region. The latest survey recorded that its 305 ethnic groups are keeping 274 languages alive across the country.
“[These languages] have managed to survive even in the face of successive attacks since the beginning of the colonization of this territory, which was already home to countless indigenous peoples before it was called Brazil. Preserving and valuing Brazilian linguistic diversity is therefore fundamental for the construction of a plural and inclusive society,” Justice Rosa Weber stated.
Lucas Marubo, from the Marubo ethnic group, noted that the rendition paves the way for other translations and dubbed it “a landmark for indigenous peoples.” Translator Inory Kanamari, from the Kanamari people, pointed out she is the first woman of her ethnicity to practice law. “Our country is immensely diverse and I don’t hear our languages in these spaces. We need to be part of it,” she affirmed.
The Nheengatu language
The head of Brazil’s top court said Nheengatu was chosen due to its role in the Amazon region. “The decision was based on the perception that historically this language allowed communication between different peoples scattered throughout the Amazon region, up to the border with Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela, and came to be prevalent in Brazil, historians say, until it was persecuted and prohibited,” she said.
Also referred to as língua geral amazônica (the Amazonian general language), Nheengatu is the only language alive today that descends from old Tupi. It preserves traits that connect it to the Tupi spoken on the Brazilian coast.
“I learned that Nheengatu is a language of the Tupi-Guarani branch and served in the Brazilian language as the source of thousands of words, our nasal accent, a prevalence of vowels, which together with the heritage of other native and African languages characterizes our language as unique and one of the richest in the world,” Weber concluded.
The launch ceremony of the Constitution in Nheengatu was also attended by the Minister of Indigenous Peoples Sônia Guajajara and Joenia Wapichana, president of national indigenous agency Funai.
