RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Education Guarantees Indigenous Identity

By Clarinha Glock Reprint | | Print |

Clarinha Glock

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Dec 15 1998 (IPS) - Practical recognition of the culture of the indigenous population and their right to their identity is being set down on paper in Brazil, almost 500 years after their first contact with Europeans.

For the Education Ministry is distributing the first framework national curriculum guidelines, providing obligatory and non- obligatory advice on indigenous education. The next step will be to implement this in schools educating native children.

Susana de Castro Tolio, coordinator of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul’s Indigenous Education programme, said a different form of teaching, better tuned to the indigenous children has been sought for a long time.

According to the 1995 census by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI – the official aid body), there are some 325,652 indigenous people living in Brazilian territory.

“As they are made up of more than 200 peoples, some unity in the education is necessary. Now each ethnic group can adapt the document to their individual situation,” said Tolio. The draft guidelines were sent out to schools allowing feedback from the indigenous people.

Teachers have long seen the need for the language and form of teaching to me matched to etnic characteristics here, and the indigenous people claim the right to be more than charicatures in the history books.

The draft curriculum was drawn up with help from technicians and representatives of several of the beneficiary communities.

One of the concerns of the indigenous teachers was the incorporation of transcending issues in the core curriculum – like the relationship with the land, biodiversity conservation, rights and campaigns, ethics, cultural plurality, health and education.

The basic document also provides information on the need for bilingual education, in both Portuguese and the ethnic language. In Rio Grande do Sul, teachers stress children will learn to read and write in their home language, and then, gradually, in the other.

A child monolingual in Caingangue or Guarani, indigenous languages, used to be seen as a problem, but anthropologists are working to change this vision.

In mathematics, the various indigenous ways of counting and measuring are taken into account. History values the past of each people, their craftwork and instruments used in their villages. Geography works out from their real location, with models, maps made of seeds, engravings, legends, rights and medicines.

“We want to show that the indigenous can to everything the white man does,” explained Valmir Cipriano, teacher on the Inhacor indigenous reserve in the municipality of Santo Augusto two years ago, home to nearly 600 Caingangues.

Cipriano, a 28 year old Caingangue, participated in the comission in Brasilia to set the national curriculum guidelines.

Valuing the indigenous body and beauty “is important in order to do away with prejudice, mainly amongst whites living near the reservations, where the indigenous people are seen as exotic,” said Iara Martins Alvarez, FUNAI education officer.

In Rio Grande do Sul the indigenous population numbers around 10,000 people, divided between the Guarani and Caingangue. There are 37 schools educating their children, with 70 indigenous teachers and 136 from other ethnic groups.

Throughout Brazil, the Education Ministry has a register of 1,591 primary schools attending to 62,000 indigenous pupils.

These curriculum guidelines are an advance, but there is still a long way to go before this minority sees its rights to education effectively respected. There is a shortage of trained teachers, and while those of local origin are given preference, few have the necessary training.

Another difficulty is the lack of books in the language of each group, although four were recently published in Caingangue. Furthermore, many schools are not recognised by the educational authorities.

“A Constitution like that of 1988, which assures the right of indigenous people to bilingual education, is worth nothing if there is no specific curriculum, with a special schedule and sufficient evaluation,” said Iara Martins Alvarez.

Alongside the effort to adapt teaching to the situation and culture of the tribes, the Education Department of Rio Grande do Sul is implementing a campaign against prejudice.

In 1999, all the schools in the State will receive a 15 minute video on the education and daily life of the indigenous people. “We are trying to avoid discrimination by other children and to lift the self-esteem of the indigenous people,” explained Alvarez.

“We can already evaluate the losses and advances made. Schools used to be only aimed at integrating indigenous people into society. We still want to do this, but without losing our culture,” said professor Cipriano.

Hence, it is possible that the 500th anniversary of the first meeting with the Portuguese will also be celebrated from an indigenous perspective.