The event sought to create spaces for learning, dialogue, and counter-colonial listening with women from the Amazon regions. Rooted in the understanding that women across the world had been experiencing accelerated workloads and expanding responsibilities, the gathering focused on the specific realities faced by women in the Brazilian Amazon. In this region, women increasingly carried the economic and caregiving responsibilities of their families, half of households in the state of Amazonas were led by women (IBGE, 2024), while wages did not keep pace with rising costs of food, clothing, medicine, and basic well-being. These pressures were compounded by mental health disparities: of the 49 million people living with mental disorders in 2019, 53% were women, who also represented about two-thirds of those affected by anxiety and depression (IHME, 2023).
In response to these intersecting challenges, the event aimed to strengthen and expand environments where women could be received, heard, and understood. It recognized that meaningful action needed to be grounded in women’s lived experiences, those present and those whose realities extended beyond the physical spaces organizers could reach. The gathering positioned itself as a space of shared experiences, one among many, designed to extend beyond the university and into the broader pluriversal territories inhabited by Amazonian women. By weaving initiatives and alliances, the event aspired to foster collective resistance, support counter-colonial practices, and nurture life in all its diversity.
EVENT PROGRAM
12/12/2024 (Thursday)
START – END | SESSION | SPEAKER
08:30–09:00: Registration and Welcome
09:00–09:40: Opening Ritual: Isabel Dessana and Luciana Santos
09:40–10:00: Snack Break
10:00–10:45: Cuia 01 – Air Axis: Climate change, women, and the right to breathe
10:45–11:30: Cuia 02 – Earth Axis: The agony of the Earth is the agony of women — invaded territories, occupied territories, threatened territories
11:30–12:00: Indigenous Blessing: Healer Teca
12:00–14:00: Lunch Break
14:00–14:45: Cuia 03 – Water Axis: Women and Water — encounters, disconnections, immersions, and emergences at the confluence of struggles
14:45–15:30: Cuia 04 – Fire Axis: Women and bonfires — contemporary witches facing today’s inquisitors
15:30–16:15: African-based religions: Our other silenced half
16:15–17:00: Closing Ritual: The gathering of cultural cuias — songs and dances by Black, Indigenous, and Quilombola women and men
