The Multiethnic Indigenous University of Aldeia Maracanã: Indigenous Knowledge and Forest Education in the Heart of Rio de Janeiro

Representatives of Maracanã Village at the Anama Sapopemba Festival, where they showcased their rich ancestral traditions through singing, dancing, and culture. Photo: Sophia Vie

Raised in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Mônica Lima Mura Manaú Arawak, PhD, a professor at the Maracanã Village Multiethnic Indigenous University (UIPAM), belongs to the Mura people and speaks Arawak as her first language. Founder of the Ancestral Matriarchal Collective, she states that forest education can be the solution to the problems generated by coloniality and modernity. She describes the importance of the Maracanã Village Multiethnic Indigenous University for the city, but above all for those who live and resist in Aldeia Maracanã (Maracanã Village), an indigenous village in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, which has been rebuilding and growing since pre-2016 Olympic forced evictions.

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This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on environmental justice in the favelas through RioOnWatch.