Ybymarãne'yma: a Aldeia São Miguel na busca pelo Bem Viver

Abstract

This Architecture and Urbanism Final Course Project presents an action-livingresearch conducted in the Aldeia São Miguel, Potiguara Indigenous Land of Paraíba. Starting from an autobiographical and counter-colonial approach, the study unfolds from the extension project 'Building the Territorial and Environmental Management Plan: Aldeia São Miguel - Baía da Traição' , linked to the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Culture, Society and Environment (GIPCSA) and the Curica Indigenous Socioenvironmental Association (Rede Curica), in partnership with local collectives and associations, such as the Nhembo’e Katu Collective, Paraibamel and Casa da Lua, and other parts of the Potiguara Territory and civil society in general. The investigation problematizes the socio-environmental impacts in the São Miguel Village, such as colonial and modernizing urbanization, exploitative tourism, and the deforestation caused by the sugarcane plantation, which generate conflicts and threaten the sociocultural and economic reproduction of this People-Territory. Through the weaving of diagnostics and discussions about local territoriality, this essay aims to develop theoretical, philosophical, and propositional subsidies for the Territorial and Environmental Management of São Miguel Village. The methodology, conceptualized as 'playing at the roça' (playing in the swidden), is a rhizomatic exercise that articulates social cartography, ethnomapping, ethnographic research, participant observation, and write-living. Through ethnomapping workshops, dialogical walks, and community immersion, the work records the worldviews, demands, and dreams of the Potiguara of São Miguel. The theoretical foundation is anchored in Global South epistemologies and Afro-Amerindian ancestral knowledge, dialoguing with concepts such as Good Living (Buen Vivir), counter-coloniality, and body-territory. The results materialize in three main axes: the technical-sensitive