#capoeiraaustralia

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Happy Monday 🌞 Awesome time in #bondibeach #Australia 🇦🇺 thank you my #capoeirasister #formandapotiguara for showing me this amazing place 🤸🏽‍♀️ #capoeira #capoeirabrasil #capoeiralife #capoeiraarte #capoeiraaustralia #fitness #capoeiramovies #fitnessaddict #fit #saracuru #capoeirabondibeach #beach #capoeiraaddicts #acrobatic #gcb #brazilanmartialart #capoeirabrasilsydney (at Bondi Beach, Sydney)

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Awesome time in #Sydney #Australia 🇦🇺 thank you #grupocapoeirabrasil Sydney #formandapotiguara @marianaustralia for having me 🙏 I had a great time teaching you guys congratulations to all the new belt 🔝🤸🏽‍♀️👌👏 #capoeira #capoeirabrasil #gcb #capoeirabrasilsydney #capoeirista #saracuru #capoeiraaustralia #fit #brazilanmartialart #fitnessaddict #fitness #comunity #capoeiraaddicts #capoeirafamily #marianapotiguara (at Sydney, Australia)

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CAPOEIRA INTERVIEWS: Don’t miss the next live chat with Mestrando Perere and Contra-Mestre Pequeno of Capoeira Beribazu Brisbane. Tuesday @ 8:30 pm AXÉ Posted @withregram • @perere_ucs Live chat with Contramestre Pequeno on Tuesday 8:30pm #capoeirahubaustralasia #capoeiraaustralia #capoeirabrisbane https://www.instagram.com/p/CASJHg_jeR1/?igshid=1sjs03qhvnth9

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CAPOEIRA ONLINE: Tune in tomorrow at 8:30 pm to hear Mestrando @perere_ucs ‘s next live chat with Mestre Gringo in Perth! AXÉ @ancestraiscapoeiraperth Posted @withregram • @perere_ucs Our next live chat we will have Mestre Gringo Thursday 8:30pm #capoeiraaustralia #capoeiraperth #capoeirabrisbane https://www.instagram.com/p/CAHztdQjBRz/?igshid=zpsnfghcbc0y

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CAPOEIRA ONLINE: Great idea Capoeiristas of Queensland! ZOOM session open to all. This Saturday. AXÉ Posted @withregram • @claudiocaracol We can’t have our Brisbane Capoeira community Rodas yet but we can still enjoy Capoeira together! This Saturday 9th of May from 10am to 11am (Qld time) join CM Caracol, Mestrando Perere, CM Pequeno and Treinel Madeira for a combined online training session on zoom open to all! Link in the comments section. #capoeirabrisbane #onlinetraining #capoeiraaustralia #community #stayhome #xangocapoeira #ungucapoeiraschool #beribazuaustralia #maonochaobrisbane https://www.instagram.com/p/B_4iK6Qj8zu/?igshid=glflarrdy27u

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Interview of the Year | Mestre Roxinho ~ ECAMAR

This month we are delighted to bring you an exclusive interview with renowned Capoeira Angola Master, Mestre Roxinho (Edielson da Silva Miranda), from Bahia. Mestre Roxinho has practised Capoeira Angola for nearly 40 years and is the founder of ‘Project Bantu’, which educates disadvantaged youths from indigenous and refugee communities through engagement with Capoeira. He established his school, Escola de Capoeira Angola Mato Rasteiro (ECAMAR), in Sydney, in 2006.

In this feature length interview, Mestre Roxinho discusses Project Bantu and his passion for working with at-risk communities, his reasons for coming to Australia and the highlights and challenges of his career in Capoeira on this side of the world. 

To folllow Mestre Roxinho’s work, go to: http://projectbantu.org/ and http://capoeira-angola.org.au/

CH: What was your life like in Brasil, and what brought you to Australia?

MR: Before working with Capoeira I was a metalworker, working in a workshop to build security windows and doors. I worked with Mestre Virgilio at his workshop and I also had my own workshop. Part time work with metal work and part time work as a Capoeirista. A volunteer delivering free classes for young people.

From 2000, I started to travel a lot overseas from Brasil to give workshops in Capoeira Angola especially to Europe and that’s exactly what I was doing before coming to Australia. I was in Brazil working with Project Bantu during the day in different public schools and travelling on the weekend to different states, or travelling overseas to give workshops about Capoeira Angola.

In one of those events where I was a guest, one Capoeirista called Mestre Val Boa Morte from Melbourne invited me to come to Australia to give a workshop to his group at his event. That was the first time I came to Australia.

I came to Australia and gave the workshops in Melbourne and Sydney. Then a few people who were interested in learning Capoeira Angola asked me: why don’t I stay in Australia to teach them Capoeira Angola? A few of those people are still my students, still training with me. So I went back to Brazil, and spent a few months there finalising some commitments I had in Europe which were already booked. Then I came back to Australia to try and see how things would go, and I am still here now.

CH: How did you become interested in working with indigenous communities in Australia. Was that something you had always been interested in?

MR: In my view, Capoeira Angola is a social tool to help people and especially young people who have never had advantages, to overcome struggles, to raise self-confidence and self-esteem. Since I was a Treinel in Capoeira Angola a long time ago I was interested in working with young people because Capoeira Angola was my education when I was young.

I come from a very poor and disruptive family, so I was raised by my Capoeira Master and I found Capoeira Angola was a really important tool for me to empower myself. Since then I started to work with young people, for the past 20 years. Not just with young people at risk in Brasil, but I have travelled to a few countries to work with indigenous people and refugees. I worked with refuges in Spain and Italy, and I have worked with refugees in Australia.

In Australia it was very interesting to me to work with the indigenous community because I see that they are not suffering anything different from the young people back in Brazil: the country neglecting them, society neglecting them, alcohol problems, drug problems. 

Education is a big issue in the community so I believed Capoeira Angola was something which could bring them more understanding and empowerment to overcome those struggles. 

So when I arrived in Australia the first thing I said to the people who were interested in me staying here was, ‘I can only stay if I can work with young people’. Then I ended up doing a lot of work with indigenous and refugee communities, which I have been doing until today. 

That’s my main full-time work, teaching young people to empower them with Capoeira Angola. They might not become ‘Capoeiristas’ as such but they become as Capoeiristas in life – to survive and to use the Capoeira concepts and tools to deal with every day challenges. So that’s why I ended up working with indigenous communities. I believe Capoeira can give them a lot of strength and also I learn from them, from their culture and heritage and customs.

CH: What has been the highlight of your Capoeira career in Australia so far?

MR: The highlight of my Capoeira career in Australia is actually ‘Project Bantu’, because that’s what I love the most. The results have been coming up for the past few years.

With Project Bantu we started in one East Timorese community and now we are working across many refugee communities in Australia, and Sydney especially. We started only in one place and now we are attending about 6 schools, 8 groups and about 175 young people. We teach every week, so it’s quite big.

Plus I am so thankful for the things which have come into my life through my work. I think I probably will be the only Capoeira Angola Master in the world where I have a permanent full time job in a whole range of things to make my project run and I probably will be the first Capoeira Angola Master as well to have a Treinel from my Capoeira Angola group (George Pearson) who is also employed by STARTTS (the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors - http://www.startts.org.au/) to work with young people full time and get all the benefits and a salary. I don’t know anyone else in the world who has those types of job. 

The title of my job with STARTTS is “Capoeira Angola Master” and the title of the job of my student is “Capoeira Angola Project Officer”. I don’t know who else has this in the world and I think this is the highlight.

I think it’s all together but I can see what Project Bantu has done for young people. Evelyn Agripa from South Sudan was working as well with me. She was a student in Project Bantu then started to work with me. Also Tony Samnap from Thailand, Atip Liagat from Pakistan and this is amazing. We can teach them and later on they can work a little bit with us. It’s a self-sustainable and organic program and sometimes, you know, I look back and say “Wow almost 20 years ago I started this and now look at what it is”. I’m so glad. I’m so happy. I think Project Bantu is the highlight.

Actually that’s something that keeps me in Australia, to be honest, is the work I do with young people. I love my students, and the work I do with my adult students but I love working more with young people and when I think I say “That’s something that can hold me here more, the work I do with Project Bantu” because it’s good to see the kids grow with Capoeira Angola in their life.

I’m so thankful to STARTTS NSW to trust my work and give me the opportunity to show my skills and be with them for the past 10 years.

My Capoeira Angola school, (Capoeira Angola ECAMAR) has been great as well, and we have been a very supportive group together as students and Master. We just did an amazing event together.

Actually I’m thankful for being in Australia for the moment and I really appreciate what has been coming into my life to support my family, and my kids through Capoeira. I work with Capoeira full-time day and night and I am glad I am doing what I love, teaching people, sharing knowledge, learning from people, learning different cultures, learning a new language. This is amazing. Life has been great.

CH: What has been the biggest challenge for you teaching Capoeira in Australia?

MR: The first thing was the cultural aspect where Capoeira Angola in particular has a strong hierarchy concept and many traditions whereas in Australia it’s not something you can see in the society here, and there were a lot of conflicts.

As well, in the first couple of years, it was the language. I didn’t speak English back then and it was quite challenging to be in a country where you need to teach people something you believe in and you don’t speak the language. That was a big challenge as well because there were a lot of misunderstandings and conflicts with people when I said things with one thought and people would understand in a different way. That was quite difficult.

The biggest, biggest challenge is being away from my family, my kids, my community, my language, my culture, my religion. That’s the biggest challenge and it’s hard to keep going with that but when you have something and you believe it’s worth it to face those challenges you just overcome. I think Capoeira Angola has always been my strength, to make me keep going and face those challenges.

I think through the years Australia has been changing through the migrations and that has been helpful for me to ‘swing’ with the Capoeira Angola concept. People have started to understand and be more open to understanding the different reality and learn as well how to ‘swing’ in a different society and a different culture, different language, different people.

I think on both sides we have been learning how to be together and to grow and to support each other. Myself and the country; the country and myself.

CH: How do you imagine Capoeira in Australia will evolve in the future?

MR: Well, the work I’m doing is to embrace and to make stronger and more mature and responsible the Capoeira community in Australia. I am doing the best I can all the time when I am teaching, when I am talking about Capoeira, when I play Capoeira. 

I have brought to Australia over the past 10 years, great Mestres of Capoeira Angola to support our work, to help raise this ‘child’. The way I see Capoeira in Australia is that it’s a baby. It’s very young. It needs to mature, to grow. I don’t look at you [the student] as a number. I look at how you ‘see’ Capoeira; how you are promoting capoeira; how you know Capoeira; how you play Capoeira; how you see the Capoeira music concept; how you see the history of Capoeira. That’s the main thing for me.

I hope the future for Capoeira in Australia will be better than what it is now. What I see in Australia today is a lot of Capoeira groups, a lot of people playing capoeira, but there are not many ‘Capoeiristas’ in Australia. 

To make, to build, to have Capoeiristas in Australia we need to move forward in a different way.

If you look in Sydney especially there are a lot of Capoeira classes, but there are not many rodas of Capoeira and I believe the ‘roda de Capoeira’ is where the students learn Capoeira well. That’s the real class of Capoeira, where you are challenged and you make a challenge and you learn through your mistakes when you are playing Capoeira. So that’s why I hold my roda every second Saturday (It used to be every Friday but now it’s every second Saturday)

I hope in the future that Capoeiristas in Australia will be more reliable to be together and grow together, to not be separate, to not think “we are many, but it’s just many”. I’d like to see that we are many but we are ‘one’ in the way we support each other and visit each other and we are honest with each other and respect each other. It doesn’t matter what knowledge you have, it doesn’t matter what style you are, but everyone needs to be respected, everyone needs to be acknowledged, whatever knowledge or information they have that’s what they can give and I believe we need to make those changes to welcome everyone in our schools. To invite everyone.

In particular the teachers I think need to change the way we relate to each other, as Brazilians or non-Brazilians. I think it’s a very sensitive topic you ask me about now, but I’m very open and OK to talk about it. I think what I see is so many people raising their legs over each other but I don’t see many ‘Capoeiristas’ themselves. A Capoeirista for me is someone who knows the fundamentals, someone who knows how to look after instruments, to build instruments, to play the berimbau well, to sing capoeira music well, and to make the energy in the roda. Capoeiristas have compassion with each other. They share knowledge. Capoeiristas should be together and grow together as a community, not just in the roda. We can talk with each other outside capoeira. We can support each other outside capoeira and I think Capoeira is for that. We don’t have this much in Australia.

I hope that the future will be better. That’s my hope. I will do my best until the time I am around. I am not sure until when I will be in Australia, but for sure it’s not forever. But while I am still here I will support and do my best to do a great job to make a great future for capoeira in Australia

CH: How would you sum up your philosophy of Capoeira?

MR: Basically I’m not sure if I call it a philosophy, but what I believe is that Capoeira is for everyone. What I believe is Capoeira is a social tool to support to empower, embrace and unite everyone, especially people who are disadvantaged. 

But I am sure in life the richest and the poorest people are disadvantaged in some way, and Capoeira can help them with what they need.

Some people stay longer, some people stay shorter and carry what they want to carry, and take what they need. Some people carry on in their life with their Capoeira career, training and playing Capoeira. As such, some people don’t carry on or play Capoeira for that long, but they still ‘play Capoeira’ in a different concept in their life. So that’s what I believe Capoeira is.

I believe we have to respect the traditions. We need to maintain the traditions. We need to find a way to make a connection with what the new generation and the new society brings to us and what the tradition, the heritage, the ancestors and the elders gave and keep giving to us - ‘knowledge as a way of life’. I think if we look to both sides and go together we are going to go a long way but if we forget the heritage, the traditions, the ancestors and the elders and just look for the new information, for the new movements, for the new songs, for the new ‘way of being’ a Capoeirista, then we are lost.

I believe it was my calling to be a Capoeira master, to share my knowledge to anyone. When people have money to pay, they pay to acknowledge, to respect and to support my life, my work. When people don’t have money to pay I teach them with the same love and with the same care because they pay in a different way. That’s what I believe.

I have a mission in Capoeira. It has come from my grandfather, my father, and I am here now, and I will carry on until the spirits say “It’s your time”.

That’s it. I think I love to work in a social context. That is my goal, maybe my philosophy, my mission. I always try to reach deep; to understand deeply the movements and the historical contexts; to work side by side with elders; to know what they think and to bring that to young people, and to all people who are interested to know and to learn. That’s my way of looking at Capoeira.

I hope everything I say can help and be interesting for people to read. That’s what I have. Thank you very much for your time and for being interested in my work. See you when I see you. I’d like to wish a happy Christmas and a happy new year to everyone. The new year is coming. It’s a new season and the year and the time for connection and for people to be together, together, together. Let’s start the new season in our life with happiness, with love, with care and compassion, and let’s unite. Let’s unite.

Mestre Roxinho was interviewed by Imogen Joy (‘De Ouro’) - December 2016

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Capoeira Calendar 2016 | December