The resistance of Indigenous women in the decolonial poetics of Eva Potiguara

Abstract

This article seeks to understand how the work Abyayala Mebyra Nhe'engara: Cânticos de uma Filha da Terra (2022), by Eva Potiguara, articulates ancestry, gender, and territory from a decolonial feminist perspective. The analysis focuses on poems that explore the connection between Indigenous women and natural elements — Fire, Earth, Waters, and Wind — understood as symbolic poles that oscillate between resistance and cultural re-signification. This is a descriptive-analytical study, grounded in an intersectional critical reading and in dialogue with decolonial thinkers such as Eva Potiguara, Eliane Potiguara, Elisa Pankararu, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Françoise Vergès, Angela Davis, María Lugones, among others. Potiguara’s literature emerges as a mediator of historical and contemporary voices, shaping a poetic territory where political and spiritual dimensions coexist. Through a poetics of resistance, symbolic territories are constructed that intertwine bodies, memories, and cultures, revealing an agenda that challenges colonial and patriarchal structures. This study thus highlights Indigenous literature as a crucial tool in the struggle for recognition and social justice, reinforcing the centrality of Indigenous women in the defense of their communities and ancestral knowledge.