History in Movement: Tales of Resistance Against Dutch Colonization in 17th-Century Northeast Brazil
Line up: Clara Saito, Baque Flamingo

Amsterdam-based artist Clara Saito will share parts of an ongoing research project connecting the colonial history of the Netherlands with the history of Northeast Brazil, where she was born. The presentation comes at the end of a research trip that brought her back to Brazil, where she followed the traces of Clara Camarão, a Potiguara Indigenous woman who successfully led a women’s army against Dutch colonizers in 17th-century Northeast Brazil. Merging biographical notes with historical accounts, this informal lecture-performance opens up questions around armed resistance, betrayal, and social organization.

For the presentation, Clara Saito has invited Baque Flamingo, an Amsterdam-based percussion group dedicated to Afro-Brazilian cultures of resistance, founded on May 13, 2019. They perform Maracatu de Baque Virado, an artistic expression rooted in the popular and carnival cultures of Pernambuco, Brazil. Emerging from Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous spiritual traditions, as well as the coronation of the Kings of the Kongo, their music brings aspects of this history to life.

[ID: Poster featuring a black and white portrait of Clara Camarão, a Potiguara Indigenous woman depicted with bow and arrow. The title “CLARA CAMARÃO” appears prominently at the top in bold black lettering, with the phrase “A DOR DE UM É A DOR DE TODOS” underneath. Red, yellow, and orange peppers and leafy plants frame the central illustration, alongside black-and-white geometric patterns. At the bottom, a yellow text panel reads: “A POTIGUAR INDIGENOUS WOMAN WHO RAISED AN ARMY OF WOMEN, TOOK BACK THE LAND, AND DEFEATED THE DUTCH IN 17TH-CENTURY NORTHEAST BRAZIL.”]