Ancestry and Memories in Anti-Racist Education: The Legacy of Ana Maria da Silva (Maria Capoeira) in the Municipality of Pontes e Lacerda, Mato Grosso
Community Memory. Female Narratives. Ancestry. Pontes e Lacerda-MT. Decoloniality
This Master’s dissertation, developed within the Graduate Program in Education at the State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT) under the research line Education and Diversity, seeks to understand how memories woven within the Ana Maria da Silva (Maria Capoeira) community in Pontes e Lacerda, Mato Grosso, constitute foundations for preserving ancestry and affirming peripheral Black identities. Using a qualitative research approach guided by narrative and decolonial perspectives, this study positions collective memory and territory as central analytical categories. The methodological pathway materializes through narrative interviews and conversation circles (rodas de conversa) conducted with the matriarch's daughters and granddaughters, adopting escrevivência as an act of resistance and knowledge production. The theoretical framework engages with authors who problematize the intersections of gender and race, community memory, and oral tradition. Presenting partial results, the study demonstrates that the cultural practices maintained by the women of the community safeguard a vital intangible cultural heritage beyond institutional spaces. Traditional celebrations and daily life within the territory emerge as legitimate spaces for historical preservation, capable of disrupting historical silences and projecting autonomous paths toward emancipation and Black female agency.