A fé que abraça a barca: a celebração de Bom Jesus dos Navegantes. Luís Correia, Piauí, Brasil

Abstract

Throughout the years 2016 and 2017 we were immersed in the daily life of communities that live along the river and beach of the Environmental Protection Area APA Parnaíba Delta, namely in the municipality of Luís Correia, headquarters and neighborhood Coqueiro da Praia, in a research work, documentation and sound records, photographic and audiovisual works of the celebration in praise of Bom Jesus dos Navegantes, which takes place in the municipality of Luís Correia, one of the ten municipalities that form the APA, , probably since the end of the 20th century when local fishermen found the statue of Bom Jesus dos Navegantes in the sea on June 29th, the day of Saint Peter, protector of fishermen. The oral reports inform us that since then many families, mainly of fishermen, have come to make promises to the saint, praying for protection and health. Religious rites and sacred spaces are mostly presented inseparable from historical, social and cultural times of the cities, represent the individual and collective memory. When we consider Social Museology as a “museological work”, committed to the communities it serves, we carry out the phases of this “knowing-doing”: research, documentation and communication of intangible cultural heritage - the Celebration in praise of Bom Jesus dos Navegantes. We use the Application Manual as a research technique, which translates into a set of research tools, which guides the National Inventory of Cultural References (INRC), made available by the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (IPHAN). The importance of this work lies in building and communicating documentary sources of the Celebration. In addition to the inventory, materialized in textual documentation, photographic, sound, audiovisual, we produced the documentary “A Fé que abraça a Barca”. The records in various media allow us to know and recognize the Celebration as an ancestral cultural manifestation, a religious cultural heritage of the APA Parnaíba Delta, inhabited by riverside, beachside and deltaic populations who live from artisanal fishing. In this work, we offer our contribution to the registration of forms of religiosity and spirituality, democratization and strengthening of local identities, valorization, promotion and safeguarding of memories and stories associated with the Celebration, we highlight the permanences and ruptures. In addition to the Manual of Application we use methodological procedures of action research, oral history and ethnography.