The creation of wooden benches in the shapes of animals, spiritual entities, or geometric forms is a long-standing practice that remains relevant among various indigenous peoples of South America, especially those inhabiting the Amazon and its surrounding areas.

Each indigenous culture produces its own unique type of bench, but there are common characteristics: they are always carved from a single tree trunk, without the use of joints or seams. On their seat and base, they feature designs created through carvings, pyrography, or paintings using urucum (for red color), charcoal (black), clay (white), and other natural pigments.

More than mere geometric shapes or ornaments devoid of meaning, these patterns carry a vast ancestral knowledge; they are scripts of stories, entities, and symbols that reflect their cosmologies. The use of snail shells glued with beeswax to represent the eyes of the carved animals is a recurring practice. In the Xingu region, after polishing and painting, the benches receive a finish with pequi oil.

Within the communities, benches are used in both everyday situations and sacred contexts. In conversational circles, specific seats can serve as social markers, indicating the importance of a leader or chieftain, or conveying the significance of the topic to be discussed.

There are rituals where a bench is placed at the center of a circle, while others involve arranging multiple long benches in a circular fashion. Shamans possess small, easily transportable benches which they use during their transcendence into the spiritual world while healing a sick individual.

Despite indigenous roots being a fundamental part of the formation of Brazilian cultures, from language to customs, and encompassing aesthetics, they rarely receive proper recognition, having been historically rendered invisible by the colonial process that shaped the country. Embedded within non-indigenous cultures as pieces of art and design, indigenous benches are gaining increasing recognition, bringing visibility to indigenous leadership in creating and expressing their own worldview, and creating room for acknowledgment of their role in the history of national design. In this context, indigenous benches and the native fauna they represent stand as an invitation to reforest the Brazilian imagination.

Text by Marina Frúgoli