Areas of activity and projects in progress

• Training programmes for young people and adults

Teacher Training Course

This programme, which offers professional teaching qualifications to the Wajãpi, was set up in 1992 and currently works with two groups, involving a total of 30 participants. The members of the first group have already been teaching for several years in schools on indigenous land and plan to complete their middle level training in 2005. The young people in the second group began their training more recently, in 2002, and for the moment are working as classroom assistants, supporting the more experienced Wajãpi teachers.

The programme is developed through on-site modules (two annual courses of around one month’s duration) and off-site modules (supervised practical training, through regular visits to the schools, and the development of supervised research projects) and aims to develop the skills of the Wajãpi teachers not only in the transmission of knowledge but also in its production and systematization.

Between 1994 and 2002, this programme was financed almost exclusively by the Rainforest Foundation Norway (which currently still provides support for its coordination) and also regularly received small contributions from the Brazilian Ministry of Education’s Office for the Coordination of Indigenous School Education (CGEEI/MEC) and the Amapá State Department of Education (SEED/GEA). Since 2002, the greater part of the activities involving the Wajãpi teachers, including the first training activities for the second group of teachers, have been financed by SEED, through a contractual agreement endorsed initially by the Centre of Service for the Indigenous Peoples (CTI) (which included the Wajãpi Programme among its programmes until 2002) and later by Iepé. The CGEEI/MEC continues to support the programme, which has also recently received financial support for some activities from the Education Sector of the Brazilian National Indian Foundation (FUNAI).

Basic School Education for Health Workers

Fruit of a partnership between the Education Programme and the Wajãpi Health Programme (PSW), this project has been running since 1998, providing basic school education to the 24 young people chosen by their communities to work as either health, laboratory or sanitation workers. This project supplements the technical training in health issues received by these young people through the Wajãpi Health Programme.

Having initially concentrated on the areas of mathematics and the Portuguese language, necessary prerequisites for technical training in health issues, this training programme recently began to include subjects from the other areas of learning covered by the national school curriculum, approached in accordance with the perspectives outlined in the differentiated curriculum proposal which is being developed for the Wajãpi schools.

Over the years, the modules of this training programme have been developed with the support of the Rainforest Foundation Norway, the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MS) and the Amapá State Department of Health (SESA/GEA).

Management Training

This programme includes supervised practical training in the offices of the Wajãpi Villages Council in Macapá, “Introduction to Administration” courses, courses in legislation and community workshops and meetings, held in the Wajãpi villages, for the socialization of information and to promote participation in decision making processes. The programme works with 25 young people and adults put forward by their communities, including those elected to the staff of the Wajãpi Villages Council – Apina.

The internship programme is developed through a rotating system, which regulates the length of time that the members of the board of directors and their assistants spend in Macapá, enabling them to carry out the functions for which they were elected without being obliged to transfer permanently or for long periods of time to the city.

The first courses in this programme were held at the end of 1999, as part of the Education Project financed by the Rainforest Foundation Norway. This partner institution still funds the programme today, but now through a specific project. During its implementation, the programme was also supported by other agencies interested in promoting the active participation of the Wajãpi in the projects that they were financing, as was the case with the PPTAL/FUNAI and currently with the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, through the Demonstrative Projects of the Indigenous Peoples programme (PDPI/MMA).

Training for Researchers

Training for researchers began as a complimentary activity in the teacher training programme, but starting from the second semester of 2004 this project will be expanded to a new group of 20 young people specifically interested in contributing to the inventory, revitalization and raising of awareness of the immaterial patrimony found in the traditional forms of expression and transmission of Wajãpi knowledge. The programme will be developed through courses, workshops and meetings of researchers, with the support of Petrobrás Cultural and the Brazilian Ministry of Culture’s National Institute of Historical and Artistic Patrimony (IPHAN/MinC), and will be an important stage in the implementation of the “Integrated plan for the valorization of traditional knowledge for the sustainable socio-environmental development of the indigenous Wajãpi community of Amapá”, approved by UNESCO in 2003 at the time of its recognition of the Wajãpi’s oral forms of expression associated with the kusiwa graphic arts as intangible heritage of humanity.

• Support for the implementation of a differentiated school education

Curriculum proposal for the Wajãpi schools

Support and assistance for Wajãpi teachers in the elaboration of a specialized and differentiated curriculum proposal for their village schools is being provided to the first group of teachers currently taking part in the teacher training programme outlined above. One of the objectives of this programme is to support the creation of a pedagogic proposal of indigenous authorship, which will facilitate not only the incorporation of Wajãpi language and knowledge into the school curriculum, but also the selection and teaching of knowledge “from outside” within the context of the Wajãpi’s own cognitive categories and interests.

Throughout the successive stages of the teacher training course, the first group of teachers, assisted by their tutors, are gradually formulating the general principles of the political-pedagogical project which will structure this curriculum, as well as the contents and stages of each of the courses which will make up the first cycles of primary education. As a result of this programme, these teachers plan, at the end of their training, to collectively elaborate a presentation document outlining their curriculum proposal for the Wajãpi schools, aiming to have this recognised by the Amapá State Education Council.

Differentiated teaching materials

The production of teaching materials also forms part of the teacher training programme, through workshops in which the Wajãpi teachers themselves work collectively to elaborate the structure, texts and exercises of the materials which they will use to teach their students. With the exception of those used in the teaching of mathematics and the Portuguese language, all materials are being produced in the Wajãpi language. This activity is being developed in the “Methodology for the Teaching of Languages” course and in the lessons reserved for the discussion of questions relating to the practice of teaching in the other courses which make up the programme.

Besides being an important vehicle for the use of indigenous language and for the introduction of differentiated objects of study into the school curriculum, these materials, produced by the Wajãpi teachers with the assistance of their tutors, are also important instruments in the development of planning and methodology for the training of the teachers themselves.

Up until now, the Wajãpi Programme has edited 28 titles of diverse educational use in support of its training programmes, the majority of these produced in small numbers through photocopy reproduction (see Appendix 2 for a complete list of these materials). The materials produced and used by the Wajãpi teachers specifically for the teaching of their students during the first years of schooling currently number nine, and there are several new titles planned or in the initial phases of development.

Community school management

Iepé supports the community management of schools on Wajãpi indigenous land by assisting and supporting the Wajãpi teachers and communities in the development and implementation of differentiated working norms for their schools, aiming to render the school institution appropriate to the indigenous socio-cultural reality. This project is being developed through continuous dialogue with the Amapá State Department of Education, which has been very receptive towards the project, recognizing indigenous schools as teaching establishments with differentiated norms and legal mandates in accordance with resolution no 068/O2 of the Amapá State Education Council.

Iepé also supports the Wajãpi teachers in the management of funds received from the Amapá State Department of Education for the purchase of school materials and the maintenance of schools on Wajãpi indigenous territory.

• Support for the territorial and environmental management of Wajãpi indigenous land

Environmental monitoring of newly occupied areas

The new villages recently founded by the Wajãpi in the areas at the limits of their territory have their environmental situation monitored through regular visits from the technical coordinator of the “Support for the Decentralization of the Wajãpi Villages” project (Apina/Iepé/PDPI-MMA), with the aim of assisting the occupants of the new areas to identify, resolve and prevent the appearance of environmental problems.

Through this monitoring programme, we hope to assist the Wajãpi in effectively recuperating and maintaining their quality of life, which is threatened by the depletion of natural resources in the villages that have been occupied for longer periods.

Training for the management of natural resources

As part of the “Support for the Decentralization of the Wajãpi Villages” project (Apina/Iepé/PDPI-MMA), specialists from diverse areas within the environmental sciences are coordinating workshops on specific themes, such as wildlife and agricultural pests, contributing to the training of the Wajãpi for the monitoring of environmental resources on their territory. The project’s workshops are aimed principally at the communities in the process of occupying the new villages at the limits of Wajãpi indigenous land, with the objective of ensuring the future sustainability of these new settlements.

• Valorization of Wajãpi cultural patrimony

Training in audio-visual production

During the course of a number of workshops, a group of 15 young people and adults have been receiving training to work as filmmakers and sound technicians and in the direction of documentaries. Some experimental material produced in the workshops is already in circulation in the villages, and other material is in the finishing stages of production. This training programme has been developed with the assistance of a team from Anthares Productions since 2000, and will be expanded over the next few years with the support of Petrobrás Cultural, with the aim of creating an audio-visual record of the Wajãpi’s oral and graphic forms of expression.

Integrated plan for the valorization of traditional knowledge for the sustainable socio-environmental development of the Wajãpi indigenous community of Amapá.

This plan, approved by UNESCO in the context of its recognition of the cultural forms of expression of the Wajãpi as intangible heritage of humanity, will have the greater part of its activities developed by the Wajãpi Programme / Iepé, in partnership with the Wajãpi Villages Council – Apina. Apina and Iepé are already in the process of developing jointly some of the plan’s objectives. In association with The Indian Museum / FUNAI, the Centre of Indigenous History Studies (NHII) of the University of São Paulo and the Amapá State Department of Education’s Centre for Indigenous Education, Apina plans to set up an advisory council which will make suggestions for, supervise and support all of the plan’s activities.

This plan will be composed of a collection of activities aimed at the external public – especially the many individuals and organizations working with the indigenous communities of Amazonia – and of activities aimed at the revitalization within the Wajãpi communities of their forms of oral and graphic expression. In its external component, the principle activities of the plan will include the following:

• Local and national awareness and information campaigns;
• Systematization of existing ethnographic and linguistic data, through activities such as the organization of existing audio-visual archives by concerned institutions;
• Promotion of wider recognition of the Amapá Wajãpi’s intangible heritage and of the patrimony of other Brazilian indigenous groups.

The main activities planned with the objective of revitalizing traditional forms of production and transmission of knowledge within the Wajãpi communities are as follows:

• Permanent analysis of the process of revitalization of the Amapá Wajãpi’s oral culture;
• Continuation of the training activities for Wajãpi teachers, health workers, documentary makers, filmmakers and researchers;
• Continued implementation of the plan for the management of the natural resources found on the Amapá Wajãpi’s territory, within the context of the valorization of traditional Wajãpi knowledge and use of resources;
• Development, by Wajãpi researchers and documentary makers in training with the assistance of the technical and scientific team, of inventories of traditional forms of expression and complimentary knowledge and of the enunciation of these cultural forms of expression;
• Foundation of an Amapá Wajãpi Training and Documentation Centre.

From the second semester of 2004, these activities will receive financial support from the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, through the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Patrimony (IPHAN), and from Petrobrás Cultural.

Awareness-raising through publications and videos

With the support of various partners, the Wajãpi Programme promotes workshops, surveys and research projects for the production of books and videos aimed at raising awareness about Wajãpi knowledge and expertise as seen in their material culture, graphic patterns and architectural techniques, etc. In recent years, the following books have been published as a result of this work:

• The Book of Wajãpi Handicrafts (Apina / CTI / MEC,1999)
• The Catalogue of Wajãpi Handicrafts (Apina / GEA, 2000)
• Kusiwa: Wajãpi body painting and graphic art (Apina / CTI/ The Indian Museum – FUNAI / NHII – University of São Paulo, 2002)
• Wajãpi rena: houses, patios and villages (Apina / CTI / The Indian Museum - FUNAI, 2002)

• Provision of Assistance to the Wajãpi Villages Council / Apina

Support for the management of Apina projects and contractual agreements

The Wajãpi Programme team – made up of anthropologists, educators, linguists, biologists and administrators – provides direct assistance to the Wajãpi Villages Council (Apina) in the implementation and management of projects and contractual agreements taken on by the organization in recent years. In particular, this assistance is offered through the Management Training Programme in which the Wajãpi’s learning process is linked to the concrete practice of the execution and/or supervision of projects and partnerships.

Among the projects and contracts for which Apina is currently responsible, of particular importance are the “Wajãpi Health Programme” and the “Support for the Decentralization of Wajãpi Villages Project”.

The team also assists the Wajãpi in the execution of smaller-scale projects for the institutional strengthening of Apina, with particular support for the management of a fund for the commercialization of handicrafts and the maintenance of a Wajãpi house in Macapá providing accomodation for those who need to visit the city in order to resolve particular problems, activities which have, over recent years, received support from APC/GEA (the Amapá State Government’s Agency for the Promotion of Citizenship, formerly the Agency for Social Mobilization and Special Projects – AGEMP).

The “Support for the decentralization of Wajãpi villages” Project

This project, funded by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment’s Demonstrative Projects for the Indigenous Peoples programme, has been running since the beginning of 2004 under the supervision of Apina, with administrative and environmental support from Iepé. Under the supervision of the Management Training Programme coordinator, the trainees of this programme participate in all the activities related to the implementation of the project, researching equipment prices, drawing up budgets, making purchases, coordinating and keeping the area coordinators informed about the project timetable, sending equipment to be installed in the villages, contracting transport, buying petrol and accompanying accounting processes, as well as writing reports, carrying out banking activities, etc.