Proportionally to the number of entrants to Unicamp this year, they represent 2%, but depending on determination, the group guarantees that it will be heard inside and outside the academic environment. They are the 66 indigenous students approved for various undergraduate courses at Unicamp. Two months ago at the University, the group already mobilized and managed to organize an unprecedented activity here: the 1st Unicamp Indigenous Academics Week. Officially opened on Monday night (15/4), in a ceremony at the Convention Center, the event was designed and organized by the students themselves.
Showing the diversity of the different indigenous peoples represented by those entering Unicamp, as well as their cultural richness, is among the objectives of the Week, which on the first day already had the Marielle Franco auditorium, from the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH), filled to capacity. The activities range from cultural presentations, with music, rituals and traditional dances from various ethnicities, to conversations and debates on issues related to current indigenous issues in Brazil.
In the academic sphere, an important debate raised by students for reflection by the internal community is the permanence of indigenous students at Unicamp. The theme, in fact, which gives its name to the 1st Indigenous Students Week: "Indigenous Academics and their stay at the University".
Philosophy student Anderson Siribi, from the Tukano ethnic group, stated that the event is a way to give visibility to the presence of indigenous students at Unicamp. “This is a time to exchange knowledge, but also to reflect on indigenous issues and question how we can move forward within the functioning of the institution,” said Siribi.
One of the demands that students want to bring to the center of the debate, in addition to permanence, is the expansion of the Indigenous Entrance Exam, applied for the first time last year, by Unicamp, in five cities in the country. Electrical Engineering student, Arlindo Gregório, from the Baré ethnic group, recalled that in the first edition of the entrance exam, 34 courses offered places. “It will be important to fight to include more indigenous students at Unicamp. We will work to ensure that more courses open up places in the Indigenous Entrance Exam”, stated Arlindo. In this sense, one of the objectives of the Week is to raise awareness among the internal community, through experiences that recreate ancestry and reaffirm indigenous wisdom, according to the organizers.
On the first day of the event, a group of students presented, in the Basic Pavilion, a pajelança ritual, traditional in the culture of several indigenous peoples. The students acted out the moment in which a family turns to nature spirits, through the shaman, to save the life of a sick girl (see excerpts in the video).
“Through the presentations, we want to show the diversity of indigenous cultures now present at the University, that each ethnic group has its characteristics, like any people, so as not to stigmatize indigenous people as being all the same”, said Marinaldo Costa, from the Tukano ethnic group, student of Linguistics.
The program continues until Wednesday (17/4) and can be seen here
