• Yanomami Intercultural Education Programme - 23/09/2000

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Yanomami Intercultural Education Programme

When talking about an education project for the Yanomami people frequently ask: " why educate the Yanomami, havn't they got their own education system?" or "isn't this going to spoil their culture/deculturate them?" . In fact this concern reflects the importance that many people attach to the existing ethnic differences in Brazil and in particular, to the Yanomami, because their image is that of the largest group on the planet which still maintains it traditional cultural manifestations practically intact. The Yanomami are seen as a cultural heritage of humanity, and many sectors of society are making efforts to help preserve their culture and ensure respect for their rights.

As to school, mostly we conceive it as a process which prepares the individual for life, both in the city and the countryside, but which has no direct connection with life inside an indigenous area, in a village. Instead, historically, until recently, schools for indians denied indigenous culture and imposed the culture of non-indians (to begin with European culture and later the culture of Brazilian society), ignoring the ethnic differences that make up Brazil.

Therefore the concern expressed by some when they hear about the education project for the Yanomami is legitimate. But we have to consider that, at the beginning of a new century, the new generations of Yanomami face the challenge not only of defending and preserving their historical and ecological inheritance, but also of defending their territory against the the predatory and destructive invasions of goldminers, loggers and farmers as the economic frontier advances in the Amazon region. And we also have to take into account the fact that several groups of Yanomami have expressed their desire to interact with the surrounding society, so that they might control the effects of contact on their way of life. This leads to another, cultural challenge: how to learn Portuguese and at the same time maintain their own language, in order to transmit their traditions and think out the new parametres of their historic reality as an ethnic minority in a multicultural national space.

CCPY,s Yanomami Intercultural Education Programme began with the idea of helping the young Yanomami to face the double challenge of reconstructing their socio-environmental and their cultural sustainability, following the predatory contact between the 1970s and the 1990s. This programme is based on differentiation, specificity, interculturality and bilingualism (). The aims of the programme are to:

1. Allow the implantation of an educational policy which prizes Yanomami culture and strengthens the identity of the people;
2. Organise literacy classes in the maternal language, to ensure its use throughout the learning period, both as a subject in itself and as a teaching tool for all the other subjects in the school curriculum.
3. Train Yanomami teachers as educators and researchers in a way which ensures that the Yanomami can control the new intercultural process;
4. Collaborate in the preparation of a differentiated and specific curriculum for Yanomami communities;
5. Collaborate with the preparation of teaching materials in the Yanomami language;
6. Transmit knowledge which will strengthen the participation of the Yanomami in Brazilian society, as citizens, with better conditions to manage and defend their own territory, their interests and rights. Such knowledge should add to their capacity to take a critical approach to events;
7. Teach Portuguese as a second language with the aim of making it possible for the Yanomami to participate in the different forums where their rights are discussed and decided;
8. Encourage reflection on the changes which have happened in Yanomami society since contact.

This programme began in mid-1995 with a pilot project in the community of watoriki theri (), which is usually known by the name given to it by FUNAI, Denimi. About 102 people likve there). Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, who represents the Yanomami in Brazil and abroad, belongs to this community and was himself a great enthusiast that the CCPY should carry out the programme. UNICEF was CCPY's first partner in this project.

It is worth pointing out that access to the regions where CCPY works is only possible by plane, and that CCPY teachers have to stay an average of 8 months in the field: for each 2 months in the indigenous area, they are entitled to 1 month elsewhere.

The first school activity was literacy in the maternal tongue, which meant that CCPY had to recruit teachers with a knowledge of the Yanomami language, which was not easy, or provide Yanomami language training for them. Literacy, based on the principles of constructivism () and practised in an interdisciplinary way, using content linked to health, ethnogeography and ethnohistory, was spurred on by the surprising spirit and dedication of the young Yanomami. Very soon the Yanomami in the neighbouring regions of Toototobi (five villages with approximately 289 people) and Parawau (8 villages, approximately 314 people) with whom the watoriki theri pe enjoy close relations, began to demand schools in their villages. Fortunately the support of secondary school pupils in Norway () enabled the CCPY to respond to this demand, and extend the programme to the two regions.

Today there are 11 schools with 172 pupils, of whom 92 are literate, in Watoriki, Toototobi and Parawau.

Last July the programme was also extended to the Homoxi region (457 people) even though there is not yet specific funding for it. The idea of starting the school programme (together with an agroforestry project) among the Yanomami in the Homoxi region arises mainly from the need to help these indians improve their living conditions which have been drastically worsened by two decades of intense prospecting activities, causing environmental, social, health and economic damage. (). The link between the school and the agroforestry project is vital. The school will have a double role in relation to ecology: on the one hand, transmitting new knowledge (like forest density, sustainable management) needed for the new environmental reality of the community, brought about by the change to a more sedentary life style, the growth in population and a new awareness of territorial frontiers; on the other hand, rescuing traditional knowledge of medicinal plants, etc which is tending to disappear. The school will enable the Yanomami to take an effective role in the preparation and carrying out of the agroforestry project.

When talking of the school, we are not referring to a closed room with tables and chairs where the pupils study according to rigid timetables. The Yanomami schools are adapted to their reality. Only those who want to, go to school, and it is held in one of the collective houses, a place called Onima tima yano ().

The women can bring their small children with them. The time the school begins is decided each day, according to the needs of the community.

As there were no teaching materials in the Yanomami language, they had to be made by the student Yanomami teachers together with CCPY teachers and the programme's advisers. Books for literacy, maths (volumes I,II and III), mythology (the history of creation) and Yanomami grammar (vol.I) have been produced so far.

For the student Yanomami teachers there are intensive courses in the teaching of Portuguese. Three such courses, lasting a month, are held every year in CCPY's Training Centre in Boa Vista. During the courses visits of cultural immersion take place to such places as: the mayor's office, the prison, the waste disposal unit, radio stations, newspaper offices, schools and hospitals, etc. Five years after CCPY's Programme of Intercultural Education began, we have noted some significant results.

One of the most important is that the school processs has allowed some young Yanomami to train as microscopists to work in the anti-malaria campaign. Six have already qualified and another dozen are in training. Another important result is the training of Yanomami teachers, so that now there are about 15 young Yanomami in charge of literacy classes in their communities.

............................................................................................................... Yanomami Teacher

The Yanomami who are now training as teachers are:

Dário Vitório Watoriki theri
Daniel Watoriki theri
Keni Okarasipiu theri
Aripio Kokoiu theri
Sanimao Kokoiu theri
Sidinei Kokoiu theri
Josias Apiahiki theri
Lourenço Piau theri
Arnaldo Piau theri
Ivan Parawau theri
Turiu Parawau theri
Moquinha Parawau theri
Romeu Uxiximapiu theri
Joãozinho Wanapiu theri
Paulo Weyukuwei theri

CCPY teachers taking part in the programme:

Clenir Louceiro
Eliane Bastos
Lidia Montanha Castro
Lúdian Bentes da Silva
Luís Fernando Pereira
Marcos Oliveira (coordenador)
Simone de Cássia

Before setting up its own educational programme, CCPY studied the experiences of other, longer-established programmes, among them: Commissao Pro-Indio's programme with indigenous groups in Acre, which has been going for 15 years; the Tapirape School, which pioneered the use of a differentiated bilingual curriculum; ISA's Xingu Park project for indigenous teacher training; the CTI, which works with various groups, among others. An advisory group was also set up and has made an invaluable contribution. Bruce Albert (ISA-IRD) has given continuous anthropological advice and there have been specific contributions from Marta Azevedo and Mariana K.L.Ferreira (educational), Bimba (pedagogic), Eduardo Sebastiani (mathematics) and Henri Ramirez (linguistics).

If you wish for further information, please contact us at the following address:

ccpyeduc@technet.com.br

RCNEI - National Curriculum Reference for Indigenous Schools, MEC (Ministry of Education and Culture), 1998.

In the Yanomami language, inhabitants of the Windy Mountains. i.

Emilia Ferreiro and Ana Teberosky, A psicogenese da lingua escrita (The psychogenesis of the written language), Porto Alegre, Artes Medicas, 1986.

Every year for the last three decades, secondary school students in Norway have held a national campaign called "A Day of Work" (OD). The money raised during the campaign is donated to educational projects in underdeveloped and developing countries. CCPY's Intercultural Yanomami Programme was chosen to be the beneficiary of the 1997 campaign thanks to the support of the Norwegian Rainforest Foundation (RFN) .

The Jeremias goldmining camp, as it was known, was one of the focal points of intense mining activity during the goldrush when it was estimated that over 45,000 prospectors invaded the Yanomami area.

In the Yanomami language, place of the house where you write.

For further information please contact us at:
ccpydf@uol.com.br

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