REACENDER A LÍNGUA DAS PEDRAS, DAS FLORESTAS, DOS BICHOS E DOS ENCANTADOS: POR UMA ABORDAGEM CONTRACOLONIAL NO TERRITÓRIO DE ETNOCONHECIMENTOS INDÍGENAS

REKINDLING THE LANGUAGE OF THE STONES, THE FORESTS, THE ANIMALS, AND THE ENCHANTED BEINGS: TOWARD A COUNTERCOLONIAL APPROACH IN THE TERRITORY OF INDIGENOUS ETHNOKNOWLEDGES

Abstract

The Portuguese language arrived in the territory of Pindorama — now called Brazil — as the thread of a history marked by the genocides and epistemicides of its peoples. In its wake, hundreds of native mother tongues that sustain worlds, cosmologies, and Indigenous ways of living were silenced or attempted to be silenced. This silencing, far from being merely a thing of the past, is perpetuated through normative pedagogical practices that naturalize a linguistic hegemony disregarding the linguistic universes of Indigenous communities across the country. Inspired by the thoughts of Davi Kopenawa (2015), Linda Smith (2018), Ailton Krenak (2022), Walter Benjamin (1987), Aníbal Quijano (2005), Walter Mignolo (2008), Antônio Bispo dos Santos (2023), among others who share a critical perspective on coloniality, we propose the following reflection based on these references: is it possible for the teaching of the Portuguese language to move away from its colonizing status and open itself to processes of listening/learning connected to Indigenous territories of ethnoknowledge? In The Falling Sky, Kopenawa teaches us that language is body, land, spirit, and memory; in its orality, the word carries the world. In this understanding, we argue that teaching the Portuguese language means sitting in canoe benches and navigating the endless rivers of the Amerindians, seeking the vitality of languages in other modes of existence. Assuming this ethical commitment means breaking with the homogenizing logic and affirming, within the educational field, a plural, living linguistic education rooted in Brazil’s historical and cultural complexity.