Os Saberes sobre as plantas medicinais no quilombo de Bela Aurora: racismo, poder e a epistemologia de Oxum

Abstract

This research emerges from my lived experience as a Black quilombola woman and granddaughter of a traditional healer, guardian of the ancestral knowledge of Quilombo Bela Aurora, located in the municipality of Cachoeira do Piriá, Pará, Brazil. The study aims to understand the uses, meanings, and threats surrounding medicinal plants in our territory, articulating traditional knowledge, spirituality, and resistance against the epistemic racism that has historically attempted to silence our practices. Guided by the methodology of escrevivência, proposed by Conceição Evaristo, this work is constructed as both a political and affective act, in which my personal trajectory intertwines with the collective history of the community. I do not write about the quilombo but with it— listening to the elders, observing the household gardens, engaging with the enchanted beings, and acknowledging the presence of Oxum, the orixá of water and healing. The epistemology of Oxum underpins this investigation, as it frames the knowledge of the leaves as a vital, spiritual, and medicinal force. The research was carried out through ethnographic interviews with women and men from different age groups, documenting their knowledge of species such as andiroba, barbatimão, cat’s claw, verônica, and roses. Common forms of use include garrafadas, syrups, herbal baths, benzimentos, teas, and medicinal oils—practices that persist despite prejudice and cultural erasure resulting from religious racism and the devaluation of Afro-diasporic knowledge. The study also addresses the historical formation of Quilombo Bela Aurora and its connections with the municipality of Cachoeira do Piriá and the State of Maranhão, highlighting the resistance of ancestors who, fleeing the gold exploitation cycle, founded riverside communities and rooted their own modes of existence and healing. Gardens and backyards emerge as spaces of care and resilience, where memory, spirituality, and community well-being are woven together, resisting deforestation, the absence of public policies, and cultural erasure. This work is, therefore, an act of gratitude and reaffirmation of traditional knowledge—an invitation to listen to quilombola communities and to preserve their territories of healing. Inspired by Oxum and by my ancestors, I offer this writing as a seed of resistance, recognition, and continuity of the Afro-Indigenous practices that sustain life