OruMbya – a library of silenced voices

Brazil is a complex country. Although the majority of Brazil’s population is composed of black people and women, there is still an underrepresentation of women, black, LGBTQIA+ and indigenous people in the sciences, especially in Physics and Astronomy. Our main goal is to strengthen primary and secondary education in science, through equity and equal opportunities for children and young people living in extreme social vulnerability. Our target audience is public schools’ primary and secondary students and teachers. Through science and literature, we aim (i) to stimulate scientific curiosity, being a taste for reading and writing; (ii) to effectively and creatively awaken the political awareness of our target audience; (iii) to recover their life stories through the resilience of the stars, that is, the stories about the sky in African, Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous cultures (Cultural Astronomy); (iv) to work on the self-esteem of children and young people based on women, black and indigenous writers as well as those writers who come from the slum areas; and, finally, (v) to work, through literature, with positive models of black and indigenous people and women in the sciences. We intend, in collaboration with pedagogues and cultural agents from our universities (UFRGS and UFRJ), Casa da Tia Ciata (Cultural Centre) and public schools to develop reading circles and workshops on the stories of the heavens over the course of 1 year. We will build an itinerant library with children’s and youth books that bring the voices of people silenced in the country – women, black people, quilombolas, indigenous and those from slums. We will select books from Brazilian, African and Portuguese (PLOAD) writers/scientists and will promote the exchange of letters between teachers and students from the PLOAD countries, which will allows us to perform the intersection between science (astronomy) and art (literature) and engage children in the universe of imagination.

 

Activities

• In Rio Grande do Sul: Throughout the year 2023 and 2024, except from May to August (due to floods), the project arranged biweekly meetings with classes, 2-hour meetings, with an average of 25 students per class. Students and teachers involved with the classes participate in reading circles and do extra class activities. There was no covid problem involved.
• In Salvador: classroom astronomy activities, conversation with astronomer, watched documentary on the Hubble Telescope, visit to the Energy Museum, reading done by the teachers, presentation of reviews of the books that children took home
• In Rio de Janeiro: presentation of the project, exhibition of the books, printing of the little book ‘novas atividades’, omnibus for the visit of two schools @the exhibition in the planetarium
• In Cape Verde: fortnightly astronomy discussions
• Presented 5 workshops for school on reading books in November 2023 and, in 2024, 3 others will be presented in November.

Outcomes

The major result of the project is certainly to distribute a specialized literature into several schools, focusing on black and indigenous issues. Brazil is a country marked by epistemic racism. In addition, based on the letters sent by the children, it is noted the importance of working, in a positive way, the self-esteem of black and indigenous children, who are disqualified in Brazil, frequently treated as not people. Physics and astronomy became, from their report, a possibility for students formation. One of the undergraduate students in astronomy, participant of the project, decided to develop her honours on the topics discussed in the project. All the teachers involved in the project are unanimous in reporting the positive impact of the project on their teaching practice, since many of the issues of astronomy and ethnic-racial inclusion go unnoticed in daily school practice. The teachers also report, in their testimonies, the key role of the project to encourage children to keep reading and writing; and also about the importance of the project for the training of teachers who will keep working in basic education.