In recent days, the Brazilian federal government has officially presented to Congress the bill for the establishment of the Universidade Federal Indígena (Unind), the first public university in the country entirely structured and led by indigenous populations.
Indigenous autonomy and self-sufficiency, plurality of languages, empowerment of indigenous women and the fight against racism: these will be the foundations that will follow the objective of training indigenous professionals and contributing to the strengthening of communities and Brazilian society as a whole.
As we read on Mídia Indígena, the university will be based in Brasilia, but will operate in a network, integrated with other federal institutions of higher education and organized in a multicentric way, allowing it to contemplate different regions and biomes.
According to the Minister of Indigenous Peoples Sônia Guajajarait is a “historic repair” and a victory built thanks to the mobilization of the indigenous movement.
The Universidade Federal Indígena represents much more than a new institution of higher education: it materializes a historical repair and offers Brazil and the world a new way of producing thought and knowledge, breaking with colonial logic, declared the minister.
How the Unind will work
The creation of Unind is the result of a broad participatory process. Between 2024 and 2025, 20 regional workshops were organized, involving 3,479 people from 236 indigenous populations. The proposals that emerged from this discussion guided the work of the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with specialized bodies such as FNEEI, CNEEI, ANDIFES, as well as Funai and the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples.
The university will adopt administrative and pedagogical management led directly by indigenous people, with a multicenter and network model, designed to respond to the needs of the different biomes and territories of Brazil.
According to the Ministry of Education, the functioning of the University will be based on four central axes:
Why is it a fundamental step?
Because it is the first Brazilian public university directed by indigenous people, aimed at promoting a vision of knowledge alternative to the colonial one. Furthermore, it protects ancestral languages, cultures and traditions, integrates indigenous knowledge in the environmental, health and philosophical fields and strengthens the autonomy of native populations.
We cannot, therefore, fail to welcome the birth of UNIND as a turning point, finally, in the institutional recognition of indigenous knowledge and as a concrete step towards truly inclusive education, respectful of cultural biodiversity and the rights of original peoples.
A change that does not only concern Brazil, but sends a message to the world: protecting nature also involves enhancing the knowledge of those who have looked after it for millennia.
