The focus of this study were the ancient Canela’s villagers, located on the
right bank of the Rio Tocantins, Palmas - TO. The community, with the formation of
the reservoir of the hydroelectric plant of Lajeado, in 2001, was resettled in the urban
area of Palmas, more precisely in the Quadra 508 north. This paper is an effort in the
quest for understanding the recent dynamics of construction and reconstruction of the
daily way of life, and community tradition through the study of a town’s relocation, a
town shuttle, originally riverside. Such village, resettled in new urban context - the city
of Palmas -, reinvents, rebuild and fight for the preservation of features that ensure
your community identity. The daily way of life built over a century and a half and the
village’s identity as a riverine community is suddenly interrupt by the formation of
HPP reservoir, flooding the lands where this people lived. This event led to a number
of claims of this community, related to their welfare, as well as what they believe to
be the restructuring of its way of life and identity. After 15 years of resettlement, they
noticed that many of their losses and claims were not take care off. The riverside
community is today a group of people who see themselves "swallowed" and forced to
merge into the urban life, without being prepared to face the challenges that this new
way of life would demand. Longing, dissatisfaction, lack of prospect for the future are
the feelings that are more noticeable in the studied community. This confirms the
complexity and depth of the impacts of large projects, all in the name of needs
demands for “development” and “progress”.
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