Indigenous peoples and transformations at the university: Ethnic conflicts and dilemmas in the forking paths

Abstract

Based on ethnographic research among Indigenous academics in Roraima, the article highlights two paradigmatic episodes involving racism and ethnic self-identification, which took place during my fieldwork, to reflect on the transformations that are occurring both in universities and in the Indigenous movement. The conflict – or encounter – of different epistemes in the academic environment makes this a locus of disputes around ethnicity, cultural practices and Indigenous rights. The (re)affirmation of Indigenous identity and their presence at the university is a way of carrying out its own production and organization of difference, which highlights ethnic, epistemic, territorial and cultural demarcations. Finally, I bring an excerpt from the Davi Kopenawa Yanomami’s Master Class at UFRR to reflect on the logic of Indigenous transformations (or bipartitions/bifurcations) that continue to occur in the university environment, with the risk of this reveal itself to be a labyrinth: a tortuous, dangerous and confusing path, as the white minds usually are.