Afro-Brazilians at the Museu Paranaense: silences, public demands and resignifications

Abstract

Motivated by the interest to reflect on the relation of the public with the past and on the construction of past narratives destined to a great public, this article is inserted in the realm of which has been designated as Public History. In this article, we approach the manner the Afro-Brazilian population has been represented at the Museu Parnanense, an institution for memory preservation in the city of Curitiba. As this entity has a strong educational action at the local schools, the article also has a constituted relation with the Teaching of History. Our aim is to demonstrate that, having been created to forge a Paraná identity, which is strongly branded by the appraisal of the history of European immigration, the museum has been silent about the presence of Negrões in the population formation of the region, vanishing or limiting the approach of slavery experiences and the post-abolition period in the local history. Although this characteristic still remains in the exhibition Circuit of the museum, the institution is now seeking, attending to social demands from Afro-descendant groups, the historie recomposition until recently established. This article talks about the route of silencing and the challenges for the recomposition of the histories narrated.