The use of cosmological narratives in the classroom as a strategy to strengthen the Warao language

Abstract

The article aims to discuss strategies for strengthening the Warao language spoken in Belém through the use of cosmological narratives in workshops in the school environment. The Warao language is an isolated language spoken by the people of the same name, who originally inhabited the Orinoco River Delta region, in Venezuela. Due to the worsening of the multifaceted crisis in their country, some indigenous people were forced to migrate to other countries in search of basic survival conditions. It was observed that with the establishment of these people in Brazil, the contexts of use of the Warao language were restricted, mainly because school education for indigenous people in the city does not include multilingual education, with the use and teaching of this language in schools. Furthermore, the transmission of cosmological narratives to future generations is threatened because there are few people with knowledge of these stories. For the discussion on linguistic and educational policies, linguistic revitalization and the teaching of narratives we used: Calvet (2007), documents that guarantee indigenous peoples the right to intercultural education, Amaral (2020), Rubim (2016; 2020), Herrmann (2006) and Macedo and Albuquerque (2013). The methodology adopted to carry out the workshops was research in action and we had the collaboration of three Warao indigenous people. It is hoped that the reflections presented will contribute to promoting more actions to value the Warao language and culture and to disseminate a positive vision of the presence of these indigenous people in Brazil.