São Gabriel da Cachoeira (Amazonas), where indigenous people represent 93.2% of the population, is one of the most indigenous municipalities in Brazil. Despite these numbers, education remains a worrying challenge for the young people in the city, which has had dire consequences.
Their languages, food and other cultural aspects are the subject of discrimination and stereotyping in educational environments – in both schools and universities, by both teachers and non-indigenous students. These barriers have led young people to give up their studies – within and outside Amazonas – and even to commit suicide.
It is in this context that the Network of Indigenous Women from the State of Amazonas – MAKIRA ETA, will run racial literacy training for young people. The initiative is funded by CESE through its Small Projects Programme. The activities are aimed at promoting and strengthening specific indigenous education in schools, based on valuing ancestral knowledge and the use of the mother tongue in the municipality’s primary and secondary schools. As well as training, the project includes a research study with young indigenous people in the region. The case study will focus on two points, involving students that have experienced racial discrimination in the classroom from both indigenous and non-indigenous teachers, and investigating their perceptions of the racism they experience, even when they are unaware of it.