This presentation raises questions about the roles that critical ethics and communication design practice play in a process of representation of indigenous craft knowledge and traditional cultural heritage. In an impassioned call to be prepared for an uncertain future, (chief) Cacique Domingos Munduruku of the Brazilian Munduruku peoples, who live remotely on an Amazon tributary, remarked: ‘Families don’t have access to information...we need a project to improve communication...we know the importance of education.’ (2021) To address this challenge, a unique partnership was formed between the village inhabitants in Bragança, Marituba, Brazil, design educators at the Royal College of Art (RCA), and Universidade de Brasília (UnB). The project ‘Building a Library for the Future: Munduruku Craft Practices and Indigenous Knowledge’ is funded through the British Council’s Crafting Futures Digital Collaboration Grants scheme. One aim of the project is to develop, through agreed actions, a ‘way of doing’, leading to a cooperative approach in fostering other ‘ways of knowing’. The hoped-for result is a sustainable process through which a repository of craft practices and knowledge can be created, and eventually incorporated into a village library for the future.

An ongoing dialogue between the project’s three partners, has already led to recognizing the importance of local cultural practices and protocols in communication research processes. For example, this includes consideration of orally recorded informed consent and ‘…group culture communities recognizing the leader’s authority’. (Brazil’s National Commission of Ethics in Research, 2012) Local telecommunications practices are central to the project’s documentation (e.g., WhatsApp, mobile phone recordings). This process takes into consideration what craft practices are foregrounded and how participants represent these through chosen means of documentation modes and methods. These processes ultimately inform the representation and interpretation of Munduruku indigenous knowledge, crafts processes, and their place in history.

The authors would like to acknowledge the generosity (in terms of time and knowledge-sharing) of Cacique Domingos Munduruku of the Brazilian Munduruku peoples and the village inhabitants of Bragança, Marituba, Brazil.