Os processos formativos na Opan e os novos desafios político-pedagógicos

Abstract

The study entitled "Formation Processes in Operation Native Amazon (Operação Amazônia Nativa or OPAN) and New Political-pedagogical Challenges", that we conducted from 2011 to 2012 at the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), seeks to understand changes and challenges in the process of indigenous formation that this non-governmental organization (NGO) experienced over forty years (1969 to 2009). OPAN emerged in 1969 as one of the first indigenous NGOs in the country with support from the Catholic Church, which innovated in redefining the meaning of "evangelization" in the light of Vatican II, and the 2nd and 3rd Latin American Episcopal Conferences. This incarnation, as a new "methodology" of intervention, leads the members of OPAN-lay young people and members of the pastoral care team of the Catholic Church-to promote a creative practice giving rise to what was then called "alternative indigenism." OPAN has travelled a historical trajectory characterized by major changes in the socio-political and economic context of the country, and, as the leading organization of indigenous formation, has consistently strived in its activities for the selfdetermination and autonomy of indigenous peoples. It would be the decade of the 1990s, beginning with the split from the Church and the arrival of the Third Sector, that this formation process would suffer a permanent reform as a result of growing tensions established within the institution in the face of professionalization and partnerships with the state within the universe of NGOs. In this way, we witnessed a growing conflict between the thought of the old indigenism, leveraged by an organic unity of a philosophical, pedagocial, and political horizon in light of the theology and pedagogy of liberation, and ideas of a more academic, pragmatic, and technical character brought by members of the new generation. Based on interviews and analysis of the annual reports and other documents of interest, such as seminars, minutes of meetings, and some letters from across these 40 years, we present reflections that seem relevant to us, dialoguing with several of Antonio Gramsci's categories such as "philosophy of praxis," "organic intellectual," "common sense," "subordination," and principally "hegemony" because we believe that every political or pedigocial "act" responds to a worldview, to a model of society that is configured in its power relations in the process of seeking hegemony. This study constitutes a dialectical exercise, supported in historical materialism, exposing some results with respect to these main challenges in the formation of new indigenous people in the face of the hegemonic dispute that is occuring at the beginning of 21st century. Perhaps the main challenge is resisting passive consensus, which tends to pair the "institutional proposal" with the current capitalist hegemony, "bringing to consciousness" the philosophical, political, and pedagocial foundations of choices-something that requires continuous and collective critical reflection on practice. This points to the need for overcoming dichotomous relations that have been established, for example, between "acculturation and autonomy," professionalism and technicalism, "old" and "new," Western and Indigenous knowledge, processes and outcomes, local vs. regional vs. global, etc. OPAN changed along with the world and faces the challenge of walking subversively and creatively in building a project in conjunction with indigenous peoples.