Editora base/ Base editor

 Rocío Marivel Díaz Zavala, U. Nacional San Agustín de

 Osbaldo Turpo Gebera, U. Nacional San Agustín de

 Almudena Barrientos Báez, U. Complutense de Madrid,

 Fernando Azevedo, U. do Mihno, Portugal

 María Victoria Mateo García, UAL, España

 Marta Sanjuán Álvarez, U. de Zaragoza, España

 Xaquín Núñez Sabarís, U. do Minho, Portugal

 Sergio Arlandis López, UV, España.

 Emilia Smolak Lozano, UMA, España.

 Eugenio Maqueda Cuenca, UMA, España

 Ana Cea Álvarez, U. do Minho, Portugal

 Inmaculada Guisado Sánchez, UNEX, España

 María Auxiliadora Robles Bello, UJAEN, España

Universidad de Málaga

Abstract:

colonization. This research focuses on the life story of the protagonist of differentiated indigenous education in the state

cultural knowledge and focused not only on the processes of reading and writing, but also on the transmission of her

literacy practice was different from conventional education, leaving a legacy of a differentiated indigenous education for

the indigenous peoples of the State of Ceará.

moments or trends. The first is called assimilationist, since

it sought to absorb European culture and values into the

indigenous population. It began with the Portuguese

invasion, which subjected the indigenous peoples to the

traditional school model. It was characterized by schooling

initiatives aimed at domination and acculturation. This

model lasted until the mid-1970s, when the second phase,

known as emancipatory, began (Bergamaschi & Medeiros,

2010). This paradigm was strengthened by the struggle of

because it is planned and assumed by each indigenous

ethnicity (Mendes, 2018).

Understanding differentiated indigenous education

specifically in the state of Ceará, in the northeast of Brazil,

requires a documentary analysis, especially in the national

context of the records that are considered milestones that

legitimize this educational model. Such records end up

invisibilizing the recognition of indigenous life histories.

Therefore, going through the places and biographies

identified by the indigenous themselves as important for

Tremembé ethnic group, also known as Raimundinha

Tremembé, born in 1971 and deceased in 2009. She was an

educator whose life trajectory was marked by her activism

in the indigenous movement, being a protagonist of the

which allows us to better understand the educational

practices and representations woven by one of the most

prominent indigenous leaders of her ethnic group, which

had repercussions throughout Brazil.

The representations and interpretations in biographical

research allow us to understand the life trajectories that

contributed to education and give a better understanding of

the educational context (Fialho & Sousa, 2023). Thus, by

writing about the educational practices carried out by

Raimunda Marques do Nascimento, the possibility of

understanding not only her life story, but also the nuances

immanent in the collective context is expanded, because

the historical character given to the biography provides an

integrative understanding of the individual and the group

conducted with the aim of describing the literacy practices

carried out in Raimundinha's educational work, in relation

to the social, cultural and political context of indigenous

education in Ceará.

reveal not only her particularities as a woman, an

indigenous and a teacher, but also the still little explored

context of differentiated indigenous education, especially

in the state of Ceará.

trajectory and the founding of the first indigenous school in

Ceará, as well as the reading and writing practices carried

is revisited and the main ideas discussed are reflected upon.

without the intention of exalting heroes or great events

(Loriga, 2011).

Considering that this research aims to conduct a biography

with emphasis on the reading and writing practices of an

indigenous woman, we opted for a biographical study

developed with the oral history methodology (Alberti,

2005). This methodology is characterized as an effective

way to reflect on facts relevant to the history of education,

taking into account the subjectivities of the subjects

involved (Fialho et al., 2019).

oral history interview (Meihy & Holland, 2017), to allow

the interviewees to develop narratives about the life story

of Raimunda Marques from their memories.

For this purpose, visits were made to the village of

Six indigenous people were interviewed: Raimunda

Marques do Nascimento’s children (Janiel Marques do

Nascimento and Maria Samires do Nascimento Sousa), her

father (Francisco Marques do Nascimento - Cacique João

Venâncio), her aunt Dijé, who lived with them during their

childhood, her student at the Alegria do Mar School (Maria

sources -images and legal documents- to reveal the lines of

Acaraú and elevated to the category of municipality in 1985

and was raised by them. There were only three women in

the house, as Dijé and Maria Venância did not have

husbands. Dijé also explains that Raimunda was raised by

her and her grandmother because João Venâncio and Lúcia

Ferreira were very young and Lúcia became pregnant again

shortly after Raimundinha was born. So Dijé and Maria

where she stayed for just over a year. Dijé (30/01/2021)

Raimundinha went on to study at the home of a woman

be respected.

Gerson (24/02/2021) reports on Raimunda's arrival in

Fortaleza, the capital of the state of Ceará:

[...]As far as I know, Raimunda arrived in Fortaleza and

Raimunda studied at night and managed to finish the fourth

in Chapter III, “Education, Culture and Sport”, in Section

ensino fundamental regular será ministrado em língua

portuguesa, assegurada às comunidades indígenas também

a utilização de suas línguas maternas e processos próprios

de aprendizagem” (Brazil, 1988, p. 124).

When Raimunda returned from Fortaleza in the 1990s, the

Tremembé were already discussing the problems they

faced with their people’s schooling and its particularities,

as Cabral (2014) reports:

and traditions were integrated (Leite, 2020).

The discrimination that Raimunda experienced as a child,

which led her to drop out of school, was not an isolated

event in her life story. In the meetings recounted by Cabral

(2014), the Tremembé mentioned the discrimination and

The cacique Vicente Viana also said that he only wanted

his children to learn to read and count so that the same

would not happen to their elders, who were cheated in the

marketing of their products (Leite, 2020). According to

Fernandes (2020), this was due to the high school drop-out

rate in Tremembé, as there were very few people who could

that she worked in different places to pay for private tuition

so that her children would not study in a mainstream school

and be humiliated as she had been.

The Tremembé then began to organise themselves, and

after several meetings it was agreed to call two young

indigenous Tremembé women who could read and write:

Raimunda Marques do Nascimento and Raimunda Ferreira

asked if Raimundinha wanted to teach, and she accepted”

(Cabral, 2014, p. 48). She began teaching at the school as a

volunteer, and in mid-January 1991 they baptised the

Medeiros, 2022), in the sense that its pedagogical practices

go against the dominant practices, and it deliberately

characterized as an educational emancipation, since part of

the indigenous people themselves, along with their

reorganization, aligned themselves with other

manifestations, such as their territorial claims, and could be

characterized as an element of indigenous territorialization.

The apparatus of indigenous territorialization is based on

the provisions of the Federal Constitution of 1988, which

mentions the rights of indigenous peoples in their socio-

possession and free use of the resources available in their

says:

Maria Aurineide’s account describes how the structure that

would become the first indigenous school in Ceará, the

Alegria do Mar School, was built. The structure of the

school, which can be seen in Figure 1, was a thatched shed

with a sand floor and tables and chairs made from coconut

tree trunks. Despite its simple structure, Nascimento and

Jacinto (2014) report that “in this school, the students were

very happy because there was no discrimination”' (p. 13).

Pereira (2018) reports that “[...] in the absence of a

story, the narrative, that it was like this, that the manioc was

planted like this, that the corn was born like this”. Dijé

explains that this was how she taught history, accounting,

Raimunda did not even need notebooks or pencils.

teach them: “Let’s write this word here”. She would

wanted to say to their mothers and fathers. They would

do it and she would say, “Come on! You’re the one

the sea) came, she would break it: “Auntie, it broke my

it again. That was already the exercise she wanted to

implant in them, and they didn’t even realize it; it

seemed so good to them that they didn’t even pay

attention to what was going on (Dijé, 30/01/2021).

Tremembé developed a history from this teaching