On October 15, the Pluriversity Abya Yala held the Anticolonial Cuia of Maré: Understanding and Being Afro-Indigenous. Taking place in a district composed of 15 favelas—with approximately 140,000 residents, 62.1% identifying as Black and 0.6% as Indigenous—this gathering offered a full day of intense knowledge exchange and shared struggles. The 15 participants engaged in an experience that strengthened the Pluriversity’s commitment to confronting epistemic erasure in academia by centering Indigenous, Black, and peripheral knowledge systems.
The program included a welcoming breakfast, a conversation circle about the history of Maré and its trajectory of forced removals and resistance, a tour of symbolic sites of memory and struggle, and dialogues at Uniperiferias about knowledge produced in peripheral communities. The day ended with the “Dream Circle,” where participants reflected on projects for collective well-being and transformative futures. The gathering reinforced the Pluriversity’s commitment to uplifting Black, Indigenous, and peripheral voices.
