Education in the village and Muã Mimatxi Indigenous school: the tehêy of fishing knowledge

Abstract

Nowadays, Brazilian laws on Indigenous education highlight the need to build differentiated schools in the villages and the inclusion of Indigenous theme in urban schools. In this work, we aim to understand the culture of Pataxoop, whose village Muã Mimatxi is located in the city of Itapecerica, Minas Gerais , Brazil. We intend to seek elements that help build the cultural identity of this people, strengthening their sense of belonging. It is a qualitative research aiming to understand the past and its connection to the present, distinguishing the subjective times of the ensemble. To do so, we interviewed the cacique and the teacher of the subject ‘Uses of the Territory’ who has been creating narrative-drawing, called tehêys of knowledge fishing. In the tehêys , the formation of Pataxoop people, their cosmogonies, myths, generational interaction, and forms of resistance are represented. It is also a didactic material for the village school. We could see, in both interviews, a spontaneous narration, with no cuts, in which interviewees developed these stories with a strong affective commitment. We have increased our understanding of the interactions among education, culture, and identity of these Indigenous groups, thus better understanding the social formation of Brazilian people and the importance of myths to build the history of the village. Understanding the way of living and thinking, their rituals and social practices, helps to think about the selection of themes to be studied in Indigenous and urban schools.