Experiences in Communication and Arts and the Resumption of Courses with Indigenous Students and Teachers at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Abstract

In this article, we present experiences of communication and arts training for students at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) through different programs: a teaching program, FIEI (Intercultural Training for Indigenous Educators); a research program, OEEI (Observatory of Indigenous School Education); and an extension program, LAPA (Laboratory of Audiovisual Practices). In addition to these, we will refer to several actions developed by UFMG, in which we promote initiatives and training workshops in various thematic fields and in different languages and media for the production of films, videos, exhibitions, and other forms of artistic and cultural production and documentation of the practices and knowledge of the communities involved. We are interested in discussing and highlighting the great potential for mediation that cinema and the arts can offer in dialogue with education. This is based on the concrete experience of many young contemporary Indigenous artists who began their activities in contexts of school education, especially in teacher training. The article proposes to advance reflections and speculations in dialogue with Indigenous cinema and the audiovisual production associated with it, as well as with the various procedures for the ‘documentation of knowledge’, as exemplified by the path of our former students: Alberto Alvares Guarani, Edgar Kanaykõ Xakriabá, Nei Xakriabá and Célia Xakriabá, among others. Such experiences can also contribute to the construction of the proposal for an Indigenous university (currently under discussion in Brazil), as well as to suggesting interfaces and articulations between different universities in their relations with Indigenous peoples.