Doña Oscarina, master ceramicist, documented Indigenous knowledge along the Tiquié River
Before clay could be taken from the earth, permission had to be sought. “Grandmother, are you there?” the potter would ask. “I am your granddaughter. I have come to find you.” The words were addressed to Di’i Mahso, Grandmother Clay, who taught women how to find the right material and craft the first cooking […]
Doña Oscarina, a master ceramicist of the Desana people, was a pioneering Indigenous environmental researcher who documented traditional Amazonian knowledge along the Tiquié River. Born in 1967 in Santa Ana do Médio Tiquié, she spent her childhood in Cunuri, near the Tiquié River, where waterways, family ties, and shared languages connected the community. At five years old, she entered the local school, later moving to a Salesian mission school in Pari Cachoeira at the age of 13.
While on a family holiday at 14, she met her future husband, Rafael Azevedo, and they married, spending over four decades together. Their home became a hub for farming, research, ceremony, and instruction, where Oscarina cultivated various crops, made ceramics, and taught younger women the art of finding and preparing clay, shaping vessels, and firing them.
Rafael contributed knowledge of ritual practice. Together, their shared expertise proved that traditional Amazonian cosmology, women's agricultural knowledge, and modern climate science were deeply interconnected.
Oscarina passed away on July 4th in her home community of Cunuri, nestled within the Brazilian Amazon.
Written by urgent.news from Mongabay's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
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