Pode o indígena falar? Tradução como empoderamento de línguas ameaçadas

Abstract

Can the indigenous speak? Translation as empowerment for endangered languages

ABSTRACT: In this paper, we discuss the knowledge constructed during a research project on translation technologies and an endangered indigenous language in the Lower Amazon region. Reading, debating and translating various texts from Portuguese into Sateré-Mawé led the translation team to think about and mull over aspects of their own reality and socio-cultural condition, in a movement to raise awareness about indigenous language, identity and representativeness. As a result, they realised that the indigenous voice is still not really heard in most Western instances of power. In line with Gayatri Spivak's conception, the indigenous person is the subaltern of the West: they have no autonomous voice and there is always some intermediary, including a subaltern, speaking on their behalf or, at most, as in the case of this text, creating a space for indigenous discourse. This is not enough for indigenous identity and representation to be strengthened and lose the stigmas imposed by non-indigenous people and their biased views. In this sense, translation emerges as a potential way for indigenous people and their knowledge to be accessed by more people and more quickly, while also allowing indigenous peoples to have autonomy over their own voice and power to choose.

KEYWORDS: Translation; Indigenous identity; Indigenous representativeness; Decolonialism.