Description of the Project
A lot of the indigenous communities in Brazil are loosing people and cultural srength from having the youth leave the territory to study in universities outside of their lands, mainly in big cities. We wanted to do a Pollination because we believe that Ecoversities can bring them better results that they are looking for personally, at the same time as valuing their cultures,
What really happened in the project:
In the Amazon, all happened better than predicted. We could be present in a teacher´s training and education gathering in one of the communities and got to meet several leaders from communities represented by FOIRN. We were warmly welcomed, were able to give a lengthy presentation on Ecoversities, and there was a general consensus and motivation among community leaders and the population present that they wanted to develop an indigenous ecoversity in the upper Rio Negro. We provisionally named it the 14,000-Year-Old Indigenous University, corresponding to the human presence in those territories. We were also able to hold a long and descriptive meeting at the FOIRN office with administrative leaders, who were also motivated and interested in giving it continuation.
What I did: (explain what you or your group did to finish your project.)
We concluded the 10-day trip and remained in contact with them so that they could present their projects to the Germinators later on.
What I learned about myself
We learned that these two territories are truly part of our mission. We learned more about our internal structure, about the joint articulation of Maria and Clara for our work at the Instituto Etno.
What I enjoyed the most
What we liked most was seeing how elders in the Amazon and young people in Heliópolis began to recognize their importance and relevance in the community. The former recognized themselves as masters of knowledge, something they had always wanted but never had the opportunity to train as teachers, and now they were being called and recognized as masters! In Heliópolis, young people recognized themselves as agents of their own future, with the innate permission to make choices according to what their hearts felt called to do. It was also cool to see young people from both communities recognizing and celebrating their power to choose their masters.
What I found difficult: (write about any part of the project you found hard to do.)
Talking to adults in Heliópolis about the credibility and feasibility of ecoversities — given that they were already deeply entrenched in the conventional system, and sustained by it. It was difficult in the sense that it took a lot of energy to keep the meeting going.
What really worked during this project?
The recognition and credibility of true masters—in both communities.
What is emerging now? How do you imagine the future of your project, whether or not it continues? What new questions, relationships, or possibilities came up?
We want to and are continuing to work with them to develop the university they dream of in practice. Both projects were accepted into Germinadores, and even though one of them had to leave the program, this gave concrete form to what we had been discussing together.
Who did you collaborate with?
Please share the communities, groups, people, or territories that shaped this process. How did collaboration influence the project?
Amazon: friends and other staff from FOIRN, the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Negro River, welcomed us in their houses, planning and event. They are the biggest indigenous articulation in Brazil, representing 23 indigenous ethnicities in the country with beautiful, consolidated work grounded in the communities they support. FOIRN works to defend the rights and sustainable development of 750 indigenous communities in the Amazon’s most preserved region. As a result, the communities and leaders have a lot of trust and openness with FOIRN. This opened doors for us and made the meetings possible. It was a friend from the community who connected us at the first place, due to her interest in our vision of education.
Heliópolis: we were welcomed by UNAS, União de Núcleos, Associações dos Moradores de Heliópolis e Região (Cooperative of Nuclei, Associations of Residents of Heliópolis and Region), a non-profit organization that was born in 1978. They currently have a direct impact on around 6,000 people a month through more than 50 social projects. They thus have a consolidated presence in the territory, which has given them the credibility, connections, and representativeness that made our meeting possible.
Ecoversities: Manish Jain’s presence with us brought credibility and respect to our presence in the communities as Ecoversities and what we brought to them. Manish was one of the co-founders of the Ecovillage Alliance, has extensive experience both inside and outside of it, in theory and in practice, and also has arguments and foundations for dealing with meetings and people’s reactions to ecovillages. We learned a lot about ecovillages and also about how to argue and deal with people around this subject.
How did this project relate to your territory, community, and/or the more-than-human world?
What relationships were strengthened or transformed?
Our territories connected as lands of indigenous peoples and work focused on education beyond the system. We connected as people and groups seeking practical ways to strengthen and express ourselves through our bodies-territories. We remained in close contact and managed to get both projects into Germinadores some time later. Unfortunately, they were unable to continue as planned and necessary for the program to unfold, but we continue together to develop their ecoversities by other means as well. Heliópolis managed to continue with Germinadores in the end.