Oikoá ~ Life

This week things lined up and landed where they needed to land. @emmafitz_art dropped a post on my inbox with a call by @ibby.international & @unesco for the Collection of Remarkable Books for Young Readers in Indigenous and Endangered Languages.

I had just been reviewing the titles by @ozeeditora my mind immediately landing on picture books they published that invite a non-western epistemology towards decolonization within children’s literature.

This leads us to my first book feature: Oikoá written by @felipevalerio and illustrated by @luise__weiss

Oikoá means “life” in Guaraní Mbyá— a word that honors the value of existence. In a time of ecological crisis, this book is both a cry for urgency and a song of resistance.

Crafted with the voices and vision of Indigenous peoples, Oikoá draws strength from those who are stewards of the Earth. It is in indigenous territories that rivers run free, forests stand tall, and biodiversity insists on flourishing—from trees and plants to animals, birds, and insects.

Written in Portuguese, Mẽbêngôkre, and Guaraní Mbyá, the book reflects Indigenous knowledge and languages that are rooted in the Brazilian landscape, an invitation to embrace a movement towards recognition, protection, and regeneration.

Guaraní Mbyá is part of the Tupi Guarani language family, spoken across southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. It is notable for its spiritual and ecological vocabulary, which reflects the deep cosmological worldview. In Oikoá, Guaraní Mbyá is used poetically to evoke life, sound, and movement— demonstrating the language’s emotional and sensory depth.

Mẽbêngôkre, also known as Kayapó, is spoken by the Kayapó people in central Brazil. The language is marked by rich phonological features, including nasalization and tone, and a complex system of noun classification and verb morphology. In Oikoá, Kayapó words are integrated as poetic and environmental markers, maintaining their original orthography and phonetic identity.

This book honors oral tradition, and indigenous territories & sovereignty.