The idea didn’t come immediately. First, Intervozes and Coolab designed a kind of partial blockade of the internet. With the help of a Raspberry mini-computer and blockade software Pi-hole, they made it impossible to access pornography or betting sites from the area. Plus, platforms like YouTube and TikTok were blocked at night. “The first method was to block everything except messaging services like WhatsApp and Telegram. The problem is that young people made a mockery of that domain blocking with VPN services,” says Ekman. In 2022, after several failed attempts, an idea arose to launch a platform featuring Guarani content. In Guarani, nhandé means “us” or “ours.” “In order to avoid a restrictive agenda, we are proposing a kind of local content server. Each town has a mini-computer with a memory card full of films, videos, audios

The youngest members also understood that they couldn’t immerse themselves in that way, because it was going to destroy the Guarani way of life,” says Pedro Ekman from the Intervozes collective, who works on technological projects with the inter-town committee. Jerá Guaraní says the internet has worsened problems that arose with the entry of cell phones. “Those who have cellular phones stop understanding what others are saying, they waste a lot of time, they even stop paying attention to the children, grandchildren, husband or wife,” she says. This is why the Nhandeflix platform was invented: to strengthen their culture and to value that which took place in their own lands.

Local elders decided to disconnect from the internet, and pulled out the cables. “The internet is a kidnapping tool to Indigenous communities, we aren’t used to it. People stop learning their cultural practices and fall into content that disrespects women, incites violence, and [encourages] drinking. They begin to laugh about the misfortunes of others in funny videos that circulate quickly,” Jerá Guaraní, one of the leaders of the Tenondé Porã Indigenous Land, tells EL PAÍS. But merely unplugging the internet didn’t solve these issues. Given the closeness of the region to the São Paulo metropolitan area, younger members simply set out in search of a WiFi connection. Sometimes, they’d disappear for several days. “We began a series of conversations to find a collective way of dealing with it. We helped the elders to understand that there was no going back, that the internet is like television, here to stay.

In 2021, when satellite internet connection came to the Tenondé Porã Indigenous Land, which is made up of seven ethnically Guarani communities just south of the city of São Paulo, unexpected collateral issues arose. Younger members began to detach from communal activities. They stopped going to the house of prayer (the sanctuary) and the mutirões, or collective actions. Instead, they spent evenings on their cell phones watching videos on TikTok, compulsively using Free Fire and consuming pornography. Though the internet did facilitate political organization for the inter-town committee of the region made up of 23 communities spread across five Indigenous reservations in southern São Paulo, it was leading to more problems than solutions.

The idea didn’t come immediately. First, Intervozes and Coolab designed a kind of partial blockade of the internet. With the help of a Raspberry mini-computer and blockade software Pi-hole, they made it impossible to access pornography or betting sites from the area. Plus, platforms like YouTube and TikTok were blocked at night. “The first method was to block everything except messaging services like WhatsApp and Telegram. The problem is that young people made a mockery of that domain blocking with VPN services,” says Ekman. In 2022, after several failed attempts, an idea arose to launch a platform featuring Guarani content. In Guarani, nhandé means “us” or “ours.” “In order to avoid a restrictive agenda, we are proposing a kind of local content server. Each town has a mini-computer with a memory card full of films, videos, audios

The youngest members also understood that they couldn’t immerse themselves in that way, because it was going to destroy the Guarani way of life,” says Pedro Ekman from the Intervozes collective, who works on technological projects with the inter-town committee. Jerá Guaraní says the internet has worsened problems that arose with the entry of cell phones. “Those who have cellular phones stop understanding what others are saying, they waste a lot of time, they even stop paying attention to the children, grandchildren, husband or wife,” she says. This is why the Nhandeflix platform was invented: to strengthen their culture and to value that which took place in their own lands.

Local elders decided to disconnect from the internet, and pulled out the cables. “The internet is a kidnapping tool to Indigenous communities, we aren’t used to it. People stop learning their cultural practices and fall into content that disrespects women, incites violence, and [encourages] drinking. They begin to laugh about the misfortunes of others in funny videos that circulate quickly,” Jerá Guaraní, one of the leaders of the Tenondé Porã Indigenous Land, tells EL PAÍS. But merely unplugging the internet didn’t solve these issues. Given the closeness of the region to the São Paulo metropolitan area, younger members simply set out in search of a WiFi connection. Sometimes, they’d disappear for several days. “We began a series of conversations to find a collective way of dealing with it. We helped the elders to understand that there was no going back, that the internet is like television, here to stay.

In 2021, when satellite internet connection came to the Tenondé Porã Indigenous Land, which is made up of seven ethnically Guarani communities just south of the city of São Paulo, unexpected collateral issues arose. Younger members began to detach from communal activities. They stopped going to the house of prayer (the sanctuary) and the mutirões, or collective actions. Instead, they spent evenings on their cell phones watching videos on TikTok, compulsively using Free Fire and consuming pornography. Though the internet did facilitate political organization for the inter-town committee of the region made up of 23 communities spread across five Indigenous reservations in southern São Paulo, it was leading to more problems than solutions.