The Ministry of Health’s Comitê de Cultura holds a community listening session at the Pirakuá Morro Indigenous Village and highlights local demands for education and the preservation of traditional knowledge
On November 1, 2025, the Pirakuá Morro Indigenous Village community hosted a listening and dialogue session organized by the Mato Grosso do Sul State Comitê de Cultura. The event was led by cultural officer Miguela Peralta Moura, who represented the Committee during the meeting with community leaders, residents, and representatives from different age groups in the village—youth, adults, children, and adolescents.
The purpose of the meeting was to identify priority needs for the development of cultural, social, and infrastructural initiatives aimed at strengthening the community and developing public policies aligned with local needs.
Among the main points raised, Chief Gerson highlighted the urgent need to establish an indigenous school in the community. According to him, qualified teachers who are natives of the village itself have been forced to seek opportunities elsewhere due to the lack of infrastructure to practice their profession within their own territory.
“These are people who left here, managed to get into college, graduated, and then many had to go to other villages to find work, so they wouldn’t be left without a job. We have students, but we lack the infrastructure to get started.”
The demand for a dedicated educational institution is seen as essential to ensuring that young people remain in the community, strengthening cultural identity, and expanding access to education in a way that is contextualized to indigenous traditions and knowledge.
Preservation of Traditional Knowledge
The listening session also provided a space for moving accounts from older members of the village, such as 76-year-old Dona Mari Canteiro. The elder arrived at the meeting on horseback—a habit she maintains even in her advanced age—and emphasized the importance of passing on knowledge to younger generations.
She expressed her desire to teach young people how to make handmade hammocks, a tradition that has shaped her life and one she fears will fade over time.
“I want to teach, because I’m very old, and leave the people—the children, the girls—to take my place. That’s how I see it: so they can make the hammocks again, because I’ve already worked so hard at this.”
The topics raised during the event will be compiled by the Comitê de Cultura to inform future proposals and coordination efforts with other public agencies. The activity reinforces the state’s commitment to engaging directly with communities, taking into account their needs, perspectives, and unique forms of organization.
The active participation of residents of all ages demonstrated the collective strength of the Pirakuá Morro Indigenous Village in forging paths toward its development, valuing both structural needs—such as the establishment of a school—and the preservation of its ancestral knowledge.