Trajetórias de estudantes indígenas Potiguara na UFPB : a universidade como espaço de lutas e conquistas

Abstract

The increase in indigenous students in higher education promoted by the democratization of higher education reverberated in the debate about the meaning of the indigenous presence at the university, influenced by the effects of public policies of inclusion (Quota Law) and permanence (Programa Bolsa Permanência/PBP). After surveying indigenous students at UFPB, the search was for where they are and how they are welcomed in the academic space, considering the repercussions of the permanence policy implemented by UFPB, with emphasis on the PBP and student assistance actions, based on student experiences. A qualitative and ethnographic study, it seeks to understand the processes established by indigenous people at the university, based on the analysis of the narratives of Indigenous Potiguara students at UFPB (active and former) and the situational analysis carried out in the period from 2022 to 2024, through participation in meetings of the UFPB Indigenous Tutorial Education Program (PET) and in events that took place on campus IV/UFPB(located close to the Potiguara Indigenous Territory) and in the Potiguara Indigenous villages, which brought elements about the experience of being an indigenous academic, contributing to the construction of the challenges and possibilities of the presence of indigenous people at the university. The activities developed by Indigenous PET and UFPB extension projects, particularly those that took place in villages, the participation of indigenous students in the X National Meeting of Indigenous Students (ENEI), which took place in the Potiguara Indigenous Territory in Paraíba, the Indigenous Culture Forum and participation in academic meetings on campus IV and in other states proved to be significant spaces for self-affirmation of ethnic-cultural identity, political organization of indigenous students and the experience of interculturality at university. As a theoretical reference, we used the concepts of ethnic-cultural identity, interculturality and bureaucracy, categories defined based on the narratives and experiences of indigenous students at UFPB. The study found that students' ethnic identity is constructed collectively at the university and in the indigenous community (through the practice of rituals and the use of diacritical marks), a process that involves a feeling of belonging to a group, motivated by the political dimension The role of the university involves transmitting knowledge and strengthening the identity, culture and Indigenous Territory, in an intercultural relationship, which is still incipient at UFPB. Entering and completing higher education in a university space permeated by disputes and conquests reinforces historical processes of re(existence) of the indigenous people in Brazil, linked to a condition that moves from State domination through tutelary practices to the autonomy of indigenous peoples.