Kapri Padilha’s book shares Kaingang memory and resilience
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In Porto Alegre, Brazil, Kapri Padilha launched her first book, “Gaton, A Força da Terra” (Gaton, The Strength of the Earth), at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).
The book explores the memory, spirituality, and resistance of the Kaingang people, an Indigenous group in Brazil, and draws on the experiences and teachings of Padilha’s mother, Cacica Iracema Gãh Té Nascimento, a political and spiritual leader.
Padilha wrote the book after witnessing her family’s ongoing fight for their rights and wanted to highlight her mother’s strength in facing these challenges. The author explained that the book’s inspiration came from her family’s constant struggle for their land, but her mother always approached the fight with resilience and wisdom. “Gaton” reflects the Kaingang people’s relationship with the land, seeing territory not just as property, but as a place of rights, memory, spirituality, ancestry, and life.
Padilha and her mother will continue launching the book with events at the Gãh Ré village on September 13th and at the UFRGS Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences on September 16th. The book is published in both Kaingang and Portuguese, translated by Padilha and her brother, Adilson Karinde Nascimento Padilha, and includes family photographs and illustrations made by the Cacica’s grandchildren.
The project took over ten months and involved members of the Kaingang community from several locations in the Porto Alegre area.
