Quilombolas de Mata Cavalo: ressignificando a escola, a cultura e a natureza

Abstract

In the Mata Cavalo quilombo, communities fight to preserve their identity and definitively conquer their territory, where they resist on the margins of society.  Victimized by hegemonic power of exclusionary public policies, they continue to face farmers’ invasions, losing means of subsistence to agribusiness monocultures, river pollution and other environmental damage which triggered the current climate collapse. They faced the COVID-19 pandemic with immunization delays, suffering to maintain themselves in social isolation and ensure survival conditions, since their strength to resist socio-environmental conflicts was always based on collective articulation.  Even after the return to face-to-face activities, school dropout rates were significant and many students chose to guarantee family income by leaving school.  After a period of great difficulties in accessing education, these young students have faced challenges to adapt to the new secondary school, even with the implementation of elective subjects related to the Quilombola culture. The investigative methodology was the Social Map, encouraging collective and individual narratives. Amid nature preservation as a resistance strategy, this group continues to resist with their ancestral culture in schools and surrounding areas, legitimizing the desire for visibility and better days.

Key Words: Mata Cavalo quilombo. Climate collapse. Social Map. Culture. Nature.