short documentaries
20The film archive records traditional therapists, agriculture, food, crafts, medicinal plants, and intergenerational knowledge on Príncipe.
Segredos da Floresta / Film + photography + environmental knowledge / Príncipe
A living archive of people, plants, practices, films, and photographs.
Segredos da Floresta documents traditional knowledge on Príncipe as a public cultural and environmental record. Plant references sit beside 20 short documentaries and a large photographic field archive, keeping the people, gestures, places, and practices behind the knowledge visible.
Príncipe field archive
Knowledge lives in people, images, plants, and practiceDocument the living context, not only the record.
field archive
PhotosA large photographic record documents people, materials, techniques, landscapes, plants, food, and endangered craft practices.
plant records
12The public directory connects medicinal plants with botanical classification, Portuguese names, and local naming systems.
portfolio year
2017The project became a public digital home for cultural memory, environmental knowledge, documentary work, and field research.
The premise
Traditional knowledge cannot be reduced to database fields.
A plant record can preserve a name, classification, use, or precaution. A photograph can show the material, place, person, and gesture. A film can preserve voice, rhythm, sequence, explanation, and the relationship between generations. The project needed all three forms to keep the knowledge legible without stripping away its context.
That made the website more than a medicinal-plant directory. It became a public field archive where structured reference material, documentary film, photography, and attribution work together to preserve a living cultural and environmental record.
The interaction model
Meet the people. See the practice. Then enter the reference archive.
- 01Understand the project
The opening explains why traditional plant knowledge matters and identifies the research and community context behind it.
- 02Watch and observe
Films and photographs show knowledge in use: gathering, preparing, massaging, cooking, farming, weaving, making pottery, and teaching younger generations.
- 03Use the archive
Structured plant records make names and reference information findable after the human and visual context has been established.
01
Field documentation
Treat film and photography as primary research outputs.
The documentaries and photographs carry forms of knowledge that text alone cannot hold. They preserve techniques, voices, environments, relationships, and physical details while making the project understandable to people who may never visit Príncipe.
- 20 short documentaries keep knowledge holders visible and audible
- Photography records materials, landscapes, gestures, and endangered practices
- The media archive makes provenance and context part of the experience
02
Knowledge architecture
Design around the many ways a person may know the same plant.
A scientific name may be useful to a researcher while a local name may be the only meaningful entry point for a resident. The structure makes those vocabularies coexist instead of forcing one to replace another.
- Repeatable records create consistency across a varied knowledge set
- Botanical and vernacular names remain visible together
- The directory supports recognition before deep reading
03
Attribution and responsibility
Keep the people who carry the knowledge inside the story.
The project identifies researchers, local organizations, traditional therapists, farmers, artisans, and other participants rather than presenting knowledge as anonymous content. That provenance is both an ethical choice and a trust layer.
- Community participation is named rather than implied
- Film and photography preserve who demonstrated each practice
- Cultural records remain distinct from medical advice or clinical claims
What remains
The lasting asset is the whole archive, not only the plant directory.
The live project still holds a rare combination of structured plant knowledge, documentary interviews, process films, and field photography. Its value is in keeping the human context discoverable alongside the reference material.
Next product decision
Make the media archive easier to traverse and cross-reference.Connect films, photographs, people, practices, and plant records more directly so a visitor can move from one person or technique into every related part of the archive without losing attribution or context.
Project record
A digital and documentary layer for knowledge gathered with local practitioners.
Segredos da Floresta combines field research with public digital presentation. The project archive preserves the people, images, films, plants, practices, organizations, and relationships that made the work possible.
- Project
- Segredos da Floresta: Plantas medicinais da Ilha do Príncipe
- Location
- Príncipe, São Tomé and Príncipe
- Research context
- FORBIOSTP
- Coordination
- Maria do Céu Madureira
- Community partner
- ATTRAP and participating traditional therapists
- Public archive
- Plant records, 20 short documentaries, and field photography
- HAAM role
- Website, information architecture, documentary and photographic presentation
Continue exploring
