Martius Revisited

Martius and Spix took to Europe field journals, diamonds, rare specimens of fauna and flora, and even "living exhibits": plants, animals, and four Indigenous individuals—three Miranha and one Juri. Only two survived the journey, baptized as "Isabella Miranha" and "Johannes Juri," but both died within a year in Munich. Their bodies, along with all the collected material, remain in European soil to this day.

Martius' collections were only possible thanks to the knowledge and labor of Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, and their descendants. Without them, the foreign explorers would not have survived the journey or gathered such an extensive collection. Many of these peoples had already been managing the Amazon for around 12,000 years by the time Martius visited and later classified it.

The "Kindred Forest," as aptly defined by archaeologist Carlos Augusto da Silva (affectionately known as "Tijolo"), is the result of ancestral and collective intelligence. Studies confirm that 60% of the Amazon is anthropogenic—a product of millennia of Indigenous stewardship, which has helped make it one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet.

Understanding and preserving the Forest requires going beyond the accounts of "outsiders" and their expeditions. It is essential to recognize and value Indigenous knowledge, which is fundamental to the stewardship and protection of biodiversity.

Revisiting the collections of Martius and Spix in museums is therefore essential for reconstructing the histories and knowledge of Indigenous peoples, sharing this legacy with the world. For Indigenous communities, ethnographic artifacts are not merely objects but extensions of the bodies of those who once carried them.

In the Yepamahsã (Tukano) knowledge system, the origin of fish is not explained biologically but through narratives that intertwine social events of the waimahsã—humans who inhabit the aerial, terrestrial (forest), and aquatic domains. These stories include bahsese, ritual formulas for food purification.

In Yepamahsã (Tukano) knowledge, the origin of palm trees is linked to the vegetal essence of the human body. They are associated with the creation of miriã (jurupari) musical instruments, which emerged from the body of Bisio, a being of musicality. From his remains, the buhpuño (paxiubinha) and all other palm trees were born.

Ten years ago, anthropologist João Paulo Tukano wrote Palace of the Dead, where he stated: “The objects taken by Europeans, especially the diadems, are like deceased people. (...) That house they call a museum, where Indigenous artifacts are kept, is a house of the dead. The museum is a palace of the dead." (...) What, then, should be the role of museums among those who are alive and fighting for the continuity of life’s diversity in the forests?

Museums can play a vital role in reconstructing Indigenous histories, connecting the past, present, and future. To do so, they must promote exchanges with Indigenous knowledge keepers, fund the recovery of ancestral wisdom, and support the repatriation of objects, even if only through three-dimensional records. They can also contribute to environmental management plans that align with Indigenous worldviews.

Martius influenced the perception of the forest and its peoples. He was the first to organize Brazilian Indigenous languages into linguistic groups and transcribed some of their songs into musical notation. He also divided Brazil into five "floristic provinces"—Atlantic Forest, Campos Gerais, Cerrado, Caatinga, and Amazonia—which formed the basis for the current classification of Brazilian biomes.

Martius' legacy goes beyond botany—his expedition shaped the way we perceive forests. He developed the modern classification of palm trees and authored Flora Brasiliensis, cataloging nearly half of the 46,097 known plant species, 43% of them endemic. However, his impact extends beyond science—the scientific racism that underpinned his work still reverberates today.

In his dissertation How the History of Brazil Should Be Written, Martius reinforced racism by stating: "We must never be allowed to doubt that Providence predestined this mixture for Brazil. Portuguese blood, like a mighty river, must absorb the small tributaries of the Indian and Ethiopian races. This mixture occurs in the lower classes, and, as in all countries, the upper classes are formed from the lower ones (...)."

Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Amazon for over 12,000 years, developing their own epistemologies to organize the world. They created various technologies in architecture, ceramics, food processing, and the management of forests, rivers, and land. They also developed Medicine, understood as the art of caring for health and healing.

Scientific racism continues to marginalize Indigenous knowledge about the forest, land, and rivers. It is the responsibility of institutions that hold Indigenous collections to implement concrete actions in collaboration with Indigenous communities, helping to dismantle the colonial narrative imposed by European expeditions.