Escola Apyãwa : da vivência e convivência da educação indígena à educação escolar intercultural

Abstract

Historically, the imposition of the European world view on indigenous peoples is marked by the attempt to pacify them via catechesis with the intent to induce them to acquiesce to providing slave labor, enabling their lands to be coopted for occupation by the invaders. At present, the activities of our society, especially via the introduction of new technologies, continue to impact the way of life of indigenous peoples. The genocide generated by the contact of societies so different from one another, in such an unequally matched confrontation, reveals that there is no easy approach to maintain the integrity of indigenous cultures, even with the Federal Constitution of Brazil contemplating the rights of these peoples in Art. 231 and 210. To guarantee these rights has been a challenge and, despite adequate protections under the law, the State does not provide funding commensurate to the goal of fostering the maintenance of this diversity. This text aims to reflect upon this reality of indigenous peoples, focusing on the Apyãwa School as an experiment that proposed a rupture with secular models of indigenous school education. In order to approach this topic the works of Bartomeu Melià (1979, 1999), which read traditional processes of indigenous education in counterpoint to the new models introduced by the school; Paulo Freire (1967, 1968), with the concept of education as a practice of liberating action; the experiences reported by the studies of NOBRE (2005), PAULA (2000, 2008, 2014) and GORETE NETO (2009); the postcolonial authors (SANTOS, 2009; MARÍN, 2014; QUIJANO, 2009) were fundamental for the reflection. The research methodology is qualitative in nature, focusing in particular on the meaning people create and seeking to capture the perspective of the participants with open interviews in addition to documentary and photographic research, with the objective of investigating the process by which the institution of the school has been introduced and has developed among the Apyãwa (Tapirapé). The results evidence aspects of the indigenous pedagogy present in the life of the school and identify the challenges the Apyawa community faces in engaging with the state while striving to maintain the sociocultural specificity guaranteed to indigenous schools. We believe that the documentation of this educative experience in the specific sociocultural context of a particular indigenous people contributes to the study of educational science as it relates to sociocultural diversity, as well as enriching the debate about public educational policies developed by the state for the indigenous populations.