Collectors of Memories

by Naiana Marinho Gonçalves

Source: Cribiás 300+: Por uma Educação Patrimonial toda nossa (Andrade, 2021). Record of the Cribiás 300+ Project in 2019. An experience of an encounter between children from an early childhood education unit in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, and the Cuiabano visual artist Benedito Nunes.

Part of us hears July and December approaching with a certain shiver down our spine. School holidays are drawing near and, alongside them, a silent question crosses many homes: how do we provide care when the body is already so tired? On this side of the daily routine, there are tight schedules, shift work, packed buses, bills piling up on the table, and salaries that almost never match the scale of life itself. There is also the daily task—sometimes beautiful, sometimes exhausting—of maintaining a presence for children and adolescents in a world that seems to demand constant haste.

When school pauses, other urgencies appear. Who can stay? Who accompanies them? Who plays? Who rests? Who manages to turn spending time together into a true connection after such rushed days? Perhaps one of the greatest marks of our time is precisely this: we are, increasingly, too tired for one another. And so, it is worth asking: how are the conversations going inside the house? The shared stories? The distracted laughter? The aimless walks? Do the children know the stories behind their own names? Do they know who their grandparents were when they were little? Have they heard the tales of the street where they live? Have they noticed the city's monuments, the old trees, the street markets, the accents, the faces that make a neighborhood exist?

Caring for children is not a job for just one person. The very concept of protecting childhood establishes the recognition that an entire society participates in building the living conditions of its children and adolescents. Therefore, to speak of school holidays is also to speak of work, of the city, of time, of inequality, of presence, and of affection. Caring for children and adolescents is a public responsibility.

Source: Cribiás 300+: Por uma Educação Patrimonial toda nossa (Andrade, 2021). A moment recorded during one of the workshops in the Historic Center of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, in 2021.

"Collectors of memories" refers to a participatory Heritage Education methodology experienced with children and adolescents in the city of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso. It proposed walks through the streets of the historic center based on a narrative script to get to know the city and its stories (Andrade, 2021). It is, essentially, the name of a game. But perhaps it is also an invitation to a way of existing. Getting to know the oldest barbershop still open in town, climbing the staircase that connects the first streets of Cuiabá, talking to the food artisan who guards the traditional recipes of Cuiabano culture. Listening to stories, observing old marks, imagining lives that passed through there. Discovering that a city speaks too.

Perhaps holidays can be just that. Not necessarily expensive trips or grand schedules. Sometimes, all it takes is a possible pocket of time for a meaningful encounter. A conversation circle on the sidewalk. Someone telling stories. A child discovering the origin of their own name. A leisurely bus ride. A drawing made after the rain. An afternoon inventing games inside the house. Memory is also built in the little things.

And playing—something so often forgotten in adulthood—is perhaps one of the deepest forms of rest. Because playing suspends, if only for a few moments, the logic of productivity. Playing returns imagination to a tired body. Playing creates bonds. Playing reminds us that living can go beyond just surviving.

Thus, we invite you to think:

If you could pretend to be a collector of memories this school break, what would you like to preserve from the present?

About the Author:

Clinical Psychologist. Master in Education from the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT). In training in the Somatic Experiencing (SE) approach, researching mainly human development, contexts of racial trauma, and developmental trauma. Representative of the Regional Council of Psychology 18th Region MT on the State Council for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents (CEDCA – MT), 2024-2026 biennium.

Clinical psychologist / Educator / Consultant in Human Development and Collectives.

Online clinical sessions (CRP 18/05172).

Email: psinaianamarinho@gmail.com

WhatsApp: +55 65 9 9930 7667

References

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ANDRADE, D. B. S. F. ; ASSUNÇÃO, A. M. L. ; RAMOS, C. C. F. ; GONÇALVES, N. M. Cuiabá das Crianças e dos Adolescentes: A cidade como sala de aula. Revista Pedagogia UFMT, v. 1, p. 26-40, 2014.

GONÇALVES, N. M.; ASSUNÇÃO, A. M. L ; POUBEL, P. F . 'Mas a gente não tem poder em nada!': representações sociais da cidade segundo crianças. In: Anais do XII Encontro de Pesquisa em Educação da Região Centro-Oeste - Reunião Científica Regional da ANPEd, 2014.

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CUNHA, J. R. F.; ANDRADE, D. B. S. F. ; GONÇALVES, N. M. Os impactos da Copa do Mundo em Cuiabá/MT, segundo crianças. In: Anais da X Jornada Internacional sobre Representações Sociais e VIII Conferência Brasileira sobre Representações Sociais, 2017.