Akwẽ-Xerente //

“We respect the jaguar. And the jaguar has to respect [us]. We are also jaguars. We eat meat. But we cook it and they eat it raw”. This was the answer I received from an elder of the Akwẽ-Xerente indigenous people when I asked one of those questions that most of us anthropologists, even though we know they are stupid, ask anyway, in the hope that our interlocutors will recognize our ignorance and, perhaps, even out of compassion, share a little of their knowledge, perceptions, and world views.

Kuai Shen & Nuno Negrões //

Each fire has a story. Like a living being, each fire has an origin—a place where it comes to life and someone or something that keeps it alive. After the first spark the fire grows, nurtured by what its environment provides. Vegetation, wind, humidity, and temperature determine how a fire grows and where it will inhabit. Sometimes a fire runs fast and wild, while in other occasions slowly, but intensively, that fire can expand throughout an entire landscape. Eventually, every fire will diminish and find an end whether it is by human hands or due to the lack of fuel. Everything in this world ends, even fire.

Verónica Policarpo//

Under the golden hour light, the green of the trees seems deeper and magical. It sparkles. We walk silently up a path covered with leaves from last autumnal season. There are footprints from wild boars and we all bend to watch them closely, a mix between curiosity and fascination. We finally set near a path leading to a thicker set of trees. Ricardo Brandão, the coordinator of CERVAS, the Centro de Ecologia, Recuperação e Vigilância de Animais Selvagens, lays down the box he carries, where a small tawny owl crouches in motionless silence.

Chiara Beneduce, Clara Venâncio & Henrique Tereno //

Before the beginning of the summer holidays, at the end of July, the HAS HUB members went to the Tapada Nacional de Mafra for a warm team building day dedicated to walking through the park, observing the landscape and its inhabitants, but also talking and sharing time and food with each other. During our visit, animals crossed our path in several different ways, from  a fleeting group of deer, curious birds, hungry insects, timid boars and  working birds of prey.