Her family calls her a guerreira.
A warrior.

Stories in Light – Brazil.
Episode 2: Ãdxuara

“Pink.”
That is what her name means in the language of her people, the Pataxó.

An Indigenous community whose history goes back long before the Portuguese arrived in Brazil.

But as gentle as her name sounds, the life of thirteen-year-old Ãdxuara has not been.

I meet her in the village where she has lived with her family for the past ten years, on the edge of Cumuruxatiba.

Hard-won land.

For five centuries, the Pataxó have continued to resist.
For their land.
For the right to remain there.

She tells me how her father was shot at last year by pistoleiros — armed men.
During a conflict over land.
Land that, according to the Pataxó, belongs to their territory.

She startles when police cars drive through the village. People show me scars from bullets. Violence is part of everyday life here.

But Ãdxuara wants to show me something else.

Proudly, she leads me into the forest that her people have replanted themselves — tree by tree.

In the village, 100,000 seedlings are ready: trees that disappeared because of industry and logging.

She points out the animals that live there.
She tells me about the traditions of her people.
And about school.

There she learns the language of her people — a language that was forbidden for a long time.

In this way, a thirteen-year-old girl helps restore what was once lost.

Her family calls her a guerreira.
A warrior.

I see a girl who learned early how to stand up.

For her people.
And for her future.