Nosso território, nossas regras! a construção do protocolo de consulta como instrumento pedagógico e de defesa do modo de vida no território quilombola de Moju Miri, Pará.

Abstract

Our Territory, Our Rules! This statement guided and gave meaning to the construction of the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent Protocol in the territory of Moju Miri. Taking this process as a reference, the dissertation brings the collective dimensions of a writing based on many voices. I am part of this polyphony (Clifford, 1998), referenced in the concept of "escrevivência" by Conceição Evaristo (2018), as I place myself in the text as a quilombola woman belonging to the Moju Miri quilombo and also as a researcher. From this "in-between place" (Bhabha, 1998), situated between academia and my community, I bring the experience of the process in Moju Miri as well as theoretical contributions from other consultation protocol experiences in various locations. I conduct an ethnography not only of the protocol process but also of the daily life of my community, with reference to Mariza Peirano (2014). Ethnographically, I worked on aspects characteristic of the community's daily life, focusing on memory, ancestry, and the history of our quilombo. I actively participated in the workshops held since 2020, with a pause due to the pandemic, and resumed at the end of 2021 until the first months of 2023. The work for the construction of the Consultation Protocol was collective, with intense participation from the residents of Moju Miri. Additionally, the work involved allied institutions like Fase, which sponsored the project, and leaders from other communities who were invited to integrate into the Moju Miri protocol, bringing experiences from other processes. It is important to mention that all this produced cohesion not only in the territory of Moju Miri but also among several other territories – such as Abacatal, Jambuaçu, and Bom Remédio in Abaetetuba, for example. Therefore, a central argument of the dissertation is the ability to produce cohesion and aggregation through a political process like the consultation protocol. This was a highly significant pedagogical effect. In the protocol process, various collective actors converged on the central value of defending the territory against assaults from companies and the government itself, with projects such as palm oil cultivation, electricity transmission lines, road openings, railways, and ports. When it comes to defending our territory, ethnographic writing cannot avoid being engaged, as Grada Kilomba (2019) does, criticizing traditional academicism. The struggle is for the right to consultation, in the face of the government's and companies' initiatives that affect our lives and harm our forests, rivers, knowledge, and ways of life. The work uses narratives from residents who participated in the process, thus bringing their experiences through orality, the collective voices that join the writing to produce "escrevivência." The dissertation investigates how the Consultation Protocol has become an instrument of the community's right to participate in the territory's destiny, how it allowed or did not allow for a less asymmetrical negotiation with the large economic interests advancing in the vicinity and even within the domain of Moju Miri territory. In the "escrevivência," the following issues were considered: How did the Consultation Protocol process influence the strengthening of protagonism, ancestry, and political organization of the community? How did it contribute to affirming our identity? Which moments/debates most contributed to what we want? Did the process inform us about rights? Did it produce pedagogical effects? We bring voices from Moju Miri to this discussion.