Emergent Ecologies
Communities of the Quilombola Council of the Iguape Basin and Valley
Sign at the entrance to the road leading to the communities
In the northwestern part of the RESEX are the communities that comprise Quilombola Council of the Iguape Basin and Valley. These communities have an important history of political organization and struggle for the rights of the quilombola peoples of the region.
Within the Quilombola Council, the Núcleo Marias Felipas is one of the organizations that deals exclusively with women's issues, and it was through this organization that we received recommendations for our field researchers in this region: Agda de Jesus and Luciane Cruz. The two quilombola sisters are shellfish gatherers, beekeepers, farmers, oyster farmers, tour guides, teachers, and mothers.
These women teach us about the everyday experience of women's artisanal fishing in the northwestern part of the Reserve.
Agda de Jesus
Luciane Cruz
Of the 18 communities that make up the Quilombola Council of the Iguape Basin and Valley, four are focused primarily on fishing and shellfish gathering. The others, due to their distance from the mangroves, focus on other forms of cultivation and extraction, such as beekeeping and subsistence agriculture.
The community researchers focused on the communities of Engenho da Praia, Engenho da Ponte, Kalembá, and Dendê. Sururu is the most commonly caught shellfish in the region, is a staple food for fishing families, and is also sold commercially.
In addition, there are other forms of fishing activity, including oyster harvesting in Camboas and oyster farming on trays; small fish fishing in Camboas; Mirim fishing, which is dug out of the mud; crab catching by hand in holes; and shrimp caught in Camboas de Jerereré or with nets.
These various forms of fishing use different tools and techniques. But there are other dimensions to fishing knowledge, such as ancestral wisdom passed down from generation to generation through oral tradition about reproductive, lunar, and tidal cycles, and the spiritual connection with this territory and the energies that compose it, which are fundamental to nourishing faith in the mangrove and divine providence in what the community researchers called “God's Supermarket.”
Dani picking Sururu - Kalembá Community
God's Supermarket: Shrimp, Crab, and Digging for Mirim
Dona Juvani Priestess at Terreiro 21 Village of Sea and Land - Kaonge Community
Dona Juvani is seafood vendor, teacher, founder of the São Cosme Damião School in the quilombo community of Kaonge in Cachoeira, priestess of the local terreiro (Candomblé worship house) located in the quilombo of Kaonge, Master Griô, and matriarch of the Viana family. She is a devotee of mothers of the waters. Every year she delivers gifts to Oxum, goddess of fresh water, to Iemanjá, goddess of salt water, the seas and tides, and to Nanã, the goddess of mud from which everything is born.
“The oyster, and the sururu... everything that comes from God, everything is created in the mud, so we must be thankful and take care of it!”
Statue of Yemanjá in Santiago do Iguape. Protector of the waters and fishermen.
The spiritual relationship with the forces of the mangrove strengthens the women’s affective ties and respect for the environment that provides their livelihood. For this reason, the abundance of the mangrove is always highlighted as divine, and respect and care for the mangrove are always mentioned as necessary for the continuity of this relationship. The love of the work (going to the mangrove to gather shellfish, cooking) and the emotional bond of eating foods traditionally prepared from these shellfish are important for these women.
The expression “God's supermarket” is widely used among shellfish gatherers in the Quilombola Council Region. This expression refers to the mangrove and the abundance and diversity of food it provides. The abundance of shellfish, as well as the certainty of finding them, is valued by families as it allows them to feel secure in their food supply:
“We thank God and the Goddesses of the Waters—Iemanjá, Nanã, Oxum—who, thank God, provide all this fish for us. It's free, we just go there and harvest it. We have so much to be thankful for. Not everyone has the privilege of going there to catch and be nourished. We are rich in the blessings of God and Nature!”
Food from God's Supermarket - Mirim, Baiacú, Oyster, Sururu, and Shrimp
At God's supermarket, you can find sururu, crab, siri, shrimp, fish, oyster, and many other seafood items. They are used to make escaldados, moquecas, pirões, and other dishes that are eaten and sold. Shrimp can be caught with nets or jereré in the camboa. Using nets that are set one day and removed the next, it is important to pay attention to the size of the mesh, avoiding catching the small ones and allowing them to grow and reproduce. Both techniques require a break during the closed season when they are in the reproduction phase and should not be caught at all. Shrimp can be sold frozen by the kilo or prepared using a traditional drying process and sold by the liter. In this case, shrimp from the region generally used by acarajé vendors and at Caruru festivals.
Dona Nega - Kaonge community
Scalding Oysters with Noca - Engenho da Praia Community and Gathering Sururu with Selma, Uka, Mayane, and Jaqueline - Engenho da Ponte Community
Scalded Sururu
Escaldado is a typical dish of the region. With endless possibilities for combinations, escaldado is a mixture of seafood, spices, and vegetables. It contains okra, bell peppers, salt, and whatever seafood is available that day. However, cravings also determine ingredients, as people leave home dreaming of a certain escaldado de sururu, or oyster, or crab, and so they go in search of the seafood they want for that day's recipe. Other species that appear during the search are also welcome and complement the flavor of the recipe.
Escaldado de Sururu, Oyster, and Crab
Thus, the outing motivated by the desire for the dish is often accompanied by other shellfish gatherers and their children for a quick gathering session that is not intended for commercial harvest, but rather to satisfy the emotional bond they have with such a recipe. They gather what they need for the dish in the mangrove and return home. There, they boil the shellfish, pick them out, and then prepare the meal on a wood stove set up in the backyard. They eat it with pirão, which is made from the water used to boil the shellfish mixed with manioc flour. It is an enjoyable moment with family and friends.
Noca scalding oysters
OYSTER
Oysters can be produced using two different techniques. The first involves extracting oysters that reproduce naturally in camboas (wooden structures built within the tide that are used to trap fish and shellfish).
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Bucket of oysters on the head
This type of oyster is extracted from the camboa with a machete and placed in buckets, then transported in cangaias, which are a type of basket attached to transport animals, which then carry the catch to the community. There the oysters are boiled or “scalded” in the local language, and then removed from their shells or “picked,” collectively, since collective solidarity work is the most common practice in the region. Thus, shellfish gatherers and fishermen help each other in their processing, and are also helped in return. After being scalded and picked, the camboa oysters are bagged by the kilo and sold, especially to middlemen. The women complain that they do not yet have effective direct commercial outlets for their catch. The Oyster Festival, an annual event now in its sixteenth year, was created out of the need to sell the region's oysters and has become a nationally known and appreciated event.
Luciane walking in the mud of the mangrove swamp - Dendê Community
Another way of producing oysters is called ostra de dúzia, which is cultivated in “pillows” - a kind of sack made with different kinds of cloth and which is used cultivate oysters individually. This sort of oyster is produced in a process that lasts around six months, as follows:
"We take a bottle and cut it into two bands, using the bands, the neck, and the cap of the bottle. Then we take these bottle bands, pierce them, thread them onto a string, and place the neck or cap to separate the bottles so that the oysters can develop. Then we tie them to a stick and take them to the sea and leave them there to collect seeds for 3 to 4 months. When the seeds are ready to be removed, we go to the sandbars in the sea with the canoe, take these bottles and put them inside the canoe. We take the bands from the bottles and twist them and all the oysters come loose from the bottles. Then we take these seeds, put them in a smaller mesh pillow and take them to the bench to develop and grow. Then we go back to the benches in the sea, where all the oyster farms are, take the pillows and clean the oysters. We put on goggles to protect our eyes from barnacles or from the shells themselves, which sometimes fly everywhere when we hit them with the machete. That's why it's important to wear goggles when cleaning oysters. After cleaning them, we take the large ones, which are 7 cm, which are ready for sale, and separate them from the smaller ones, which are 3 to 5 centimeters, which we place on the larger mesh pillow and take back to the sea."
The oysters can be eaten raw or roasted and are sold by the dozen, raw, in their shells, which is why they require more efficient marketing.
Demonstration of oysters in pillows on the countertops
Oysters scalded to be picked
Collective oyster picking - Kalembá Community
Luciane and her nephew Alexandre
Tools
The tools used for shellfish gathering in the region vary according to the species they want to catch and the social conditions of each shellfish gathering community, but in general, with few tools it is possible to collect a wide variety and quantity of species from the mangroves. Ideally, to go into the mangroves, you need appropriate footwear to protect your feet and help you move around in the mud, as well as long pants, long-sleeved shirts with UV protection, and protective gloves. However, this equipment is expensive, so the shellfish gatherers adapt as best they can, using old clothes and shoes made from old pants. In addition, they use diesel oil or kerosene as repellent to keep mosquitoes away.
Shoes for going to the mangrove
The machete is widely used to harvest oysters, and some people also use it to harvest sururu and other shellfish. The machete is often a worn-out agricultural machete, which, after much use and sharpening, shrinks in size and its better suited to harvesting shellfish in the mangrove.
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The Jereré is used to catch fish, crabs, and shrimp in the mangroves.
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The coifo is used to transport the fish, as are the bucket and the basket that are left in the canoe, where the fish that have accumulated in the coifo are thrown. There they are washed in the water, removing some of the mud and reducing their weight for transport.
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Transportation takes place in the Cangaia, which are a kind of pouch hung on the transport animal (usually a mule or donkey) and taken home.. ​
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Pots are used to cook shellfish. Oysters, which are large, are usually cooked in large vats, from which they are then picked. The smaller pots are used to blanch the shellfish once they have been picked. The pillows are bags or “cages” made of mesh for cultivating dozens of oysters.
Dona Edith - Kalembá Community
Shellfish harvesting tools and species. Tools: Pillow, bucket, jereré coif, basket, machete, gloves, and shoes made from jeans. Species: Sururu, shrimp, crab.
There are many tools, which vary depending on the social conditions of the shellfish gatherers. People say that in the mangrove, anyone can gather shellfish, whether they have good tools, bad tools, or no tools at all, since even with just their hands and any items they can find, they can almost always catch something. Thus, the mangrove provides food security for everyone and ensures the survival of these communities.
Drying shrimp
Digging for mirim
