Cestos e cestarias

As fibras de Cipó na comunidade Lagoa de Fora, São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí

Abstract

Located in the semi-arid region of Piauí, the Lagoa de Fora community (Ribeiro, 2023; Paes, 2022; Negreiros, 2024; Leal, et, al, 2023; Linke et al, 2024), which belongs to the city of São Raimundo Nonato, in Piauí, is made up of countless ways of dealing with the land and the resources it produces, an example of that is the use of plant fibers from the cipó, a plant found in the caatinga biome and in other regions of Brazil. Since historical times, the fibers have been used in the community to make baskets and various other utensils, which comes in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and uses, depending on the need. The aiós, products made from the fibers of the cipó, which are larger baskets used to facilitate the transportation of manioc roots from the fields to the flour houses, loaded onto animals such as donkeys, are one of the beautiful examples of this traditional manufacture, which, thanks to memorial knowledges, is still present in the community, even if not in such a latent and assiduous way. In this sense, fibers have been used for dozens of years in community craft production in Lagoa de Fora. Over the years, new generations have historically lost contact with this production, due to the scarcity of fiber in the region, due to the lack of water resources, and the very absence of the need to use and make these utensils today, which for a long time was essential in the dynamics of the community, especially when it came to the flour houses, spaces that required a lot of articulation with utensils for storing manioc derivatives, such as flour, tapioca. With this in mind, the team organizing the event: I Feira de Cultura de Lagoa de Fora (1st Lagoa de Fora Culture Fair) held a workshop on producing and making baskets in different shapes and styles on February 19. Two artisans from the community who have been making these artefacts since they were young were invited, Mr. Luiz Gonzaga and Mr. Sidney de Negreiros, so the aim and purpose of the workshop was to promote knowledge and techniques in this area. That said, during the workshop, the audience was able to participate actively in a direct dialog with the artisans, being guided by them in terms of the distribution and existence of techniques, and doing so, were able to experimentally make baskets made of liana, and handle the vegetable fibers of the liana. This moment of sharing knowledge was of paramount importance for maintaining local knowledge and memories of this artisanal know-how in the community.