Colonisation and the ensuing process of acculturation of native peoples resulted in the silencing of traditional knowledge and practices. The intolerant Eurocentrism of the period of the great discoveries disrespected the originary peoples, imposing another way of being, catechising and prohibiting their spiritual practices.

For decades, indigenous schooling education has penetrated communities, unbalancing their own ways of transmitting knowledge. Guided by this concern, we dream of strengthening a living and happy space so that ancestral knowledge and practices can be transmitted to children and young people.

The Living Schools emerge from the impulse to make the dream of encouraging and strengthening four learning centers that disseminate traditional knowledge come true. Two of them are in the Amazon forest and two in the Nhe’ery forest, with the Huni Kuin, Tukano, Maxakali and Guarani Mbya. These four centers have been resisting and developing activities for years, but face many challenges due to lack of financial support.

The main objective of supporting the Living Schools is to give back our respect and gratitude to the immense wisdom of the indigenous peoples, strengthening their territories and ancestral memories. Many knowledge and practices are no longer in use due to impositions from the capitalist world. These memories, however, have not died. They are just dormant. To awaken them, an active and creative collective is needed to row the canoe of transformation, traversing the various narratives and bringing to the day-to-day this knowledge that is so important for life.

While the maracás are sounding inside the houses of prayer,
the women with their takuapu pulsing in the earth,
the children singing and the prayers
chanting the good and beautiful sacred words
there will still be resistance.
In every seed of corn, cotton, pumpkin,
of tabaco, mandioca, palmito, cambuci,
of jaracatiá, pacuri, embiruçu, taioba,
of pariparobabanana, peanut,
of sacred plants that heal
being cultivated there will still be the certainty
that these dark times will pass.
The way is resistance and resilience
inside everyone's heart!
Resist to survive!
To believe not to stop dreaming!
Cristine Takuá

"I am CRISTINE TAKUÁ, of the Maxakali people, educator, mother, midwife, thinker, and I like to take care of plants and learn from them. I am the director of the Maracá Institute and together with other leaders I have been developing projects for cultural strengthening. I studied Philosophy at UNESP (São Paulo State University), at Marília's Campus, and I have been thinking for years about Amerindian philosophies and the possibilities of decolonization of thought, to counteract the colonial monoculture that dominates the ways of knowledge transmission. I am one of the founders of FAPISP (Forum for Articulation of Indigenous Teachers of São Paulo). I take care of the dialogue with the four Living Schools, reflecting on interchanges and contributing to the continuity of these dreams."