The crossing of the jurema-preta

About the work

The crossing of the jurema-preta materialises the inseparable relation between territory, spirituality and healing, presenting an ancestral vessel afloat on the waters of the São Francisco River, the great axis of life that cuts across the Caatinga. The canoe, adorned with traditional graphic patterns, becomes a vegetal cradle carrying the forest and traditional Indigenous medicine itself, under the protective guard of the crescent moon and a starry sky.

In this poetic crossing, Jurema-preta ceases to be merely a botanical species of the Caatinga and asserts itself as a living pharmacy and an itinerant plant of power, navigating between communities and spreading healing and connection with the sacred. In portraying this mystical voyage along the waters of the Velho Chico, the work celebrates therapeutic pluralism and marks out that the path to Indigenous good living is a continuous crossing uniting the force of the earth, the mystery of the invisible and the sovereignty of its sacred territories.

Here the boat takes on the nature of a serpent, guiding the forest through the waters in a rite of passage between the real and the oneiric. It is a cataloguing of what is not seen, but felt.