Irina Bokova highlighted the concern of UNESCO on safeguarding the Indigenous languages. She reminded that “each language that disappears is a memory and a whole culture that vanishes with it.” She also stressed that preserving this extraordinary heritage for humanity is everyone’s duty.

Among the actions of PROGDOC are the capacity building of Indigenous researchers and the creation of digital files in documentation centres in Indigenous communities and in Museu do Indio. The research institutions in Brazil and abroad have participated in this initiative.

The Language Documentation Project (ProDoclin), which is part of PROGDOC, resulted in publications and audio-visual material produced in the research field. These records will be distributed among the Indigenous communities and in Indigenous schools in order to serve as research and teaching instruments to be used by the communities.

In the beginning of the 21st Century, to document the Indigenous languages and cultures became an urgent task. It is a heritage that is under threat of largely disappearing over the coming decades. Museu do Indio/FUNAI and UNESCO encourage these projects in order to strengthen the knowledge and cultural practices shared by different ethnic groups.

The ceremony had the presence of the Minister of Culture in Brazil, Juca Ferreira, and the President of FUNAI, João Pedro Gonçalves da Costa.

For the President of FUNAI, the results of the Programme are a reason for celebration. Gonçalves da Costa highlighted the work of Museu do Indio on preserving the history of the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples. He noted the importance of this kind of public policies for “much remains to be done in favour of youth, children and the plural society of our country.”

Minister Juca Ferreira said that "there will be no democracy in Brazil, if we do not define the important role of the Indigenous Peoples within our society, guaranteeing their territories, guaranteeing the possibility of preserving their traditions and equipping them so that they can reach equal and even relations with the national society."

PROGDOC benefits 35 ethnic groups in the North and in the South of Brazil. It comprises four projects: Prodoclin (Indigenous languages), Prodocult (cultures), Prodocerv (preservation of collections) and Prodocson (sound documentation). Up to the present, 331 workshops have taken place on the production of videos, texts and collection quality.

The President of the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), Jurema Machado; the director of Museu do Indio, José Carlos Levinho; and the Indigenous chief Akijaboro Kayapó were also present in the ceremony. Irina Bokova and the other guests took the opportunity to visit the exhibition called “No caminho da miçanga, um mundo que se faz de contas" (In the way of beads, the world made of beads).

(Media Relations Section of Indigenous Peoples Museum)