Marak'anà Village, Historic indigenous village in Maracana District, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Marak'anà Village is a native settlement in a 19th-century building in Maracanã District, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The site at Rua Mata Machado 126 holds spaces for exhibitions, teaching, and gatherings of the residents.
Dom Luis Augusto had the house built in 1862, later the national office for native affairs moved in, then the Indian Museum until 1977. Activists occupied the abandoned structure during the ECO 92 conference and turned it into a cultural center.
Twenty native peoples use this place for language teaching and handcraft work, passing their traditions to younger members of the community. The multilingual university allows students from different backgrounds to gather here and learn from one another.
The site opens Monday through Thursday and sits in a residential area near Maracanã Stadium. Visitors can walk in to see the exhibition rooms and join public events on certain weekdays.
The name Marak'anà comes from the Tupi language and means something like Green River, after a waterway that once flowed through this area. The residents have repaired the old structure themselves and continue building new rooms for teaching and meetings.
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