In recent decades, indigenous history has been consolidating to the point of being chosen as the subject of monographs, dissertations and theses in different post-graduate programmes dealing with human and social sciences. This was mainly due to the claims made by native peoples for their histories and memories to be revisited and for their protagonism, ancestral knowledge and cultural practices to be highlighted in the outputs of the different sciences, particularly in the fields of History and Anthropology, where research has been conducted from the 16th century to the present day. These outputs have favoured an interdisciplinary approach, building dialogues between History, Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistics, Literature, Education Sciences, Arts, Environmental Sciences or Legal Sciences, among others.

One of the concerns of the Permanent Seminar Indigenous Worlds, Abya Yala (SEPMIAI) is to trigger the decolonisation of local, regional, national and international academic productions. This aims at replacing the construction of images of the so-called ‘generic Indian’ by representations of indigenous peoples in their diversity, interculturality, continuous trans-border processes and new physical and symbolic territorialities, historically constructed and managed. These peoples have never been mere ‘victims’ of the first contacts with the European colonizers, as they have always dealt with their histories as protagonists, from the 16th century to the present day, despite all the violations of rights they have had to face in the different instances of inter-ethnic contacts with non-indigenous people.

In view of the above, the research group Permanent Seminar on Indigenous Worlds, Abya Yala, SEPMIAI, which is part of the Centre for the Humanities - CHAM of the Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal, in partnership with the postgraduate programme in History of the Federal University of Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil, the PhD programme in History and Humanitarian Studies: Europe. America, Art and Languages of the Pablo Ovalide University, Seville, Spain and with the Centre de Recherches sur les pays Lusophones, CREPAL, Sorbonne University, Paris 3, proposes the creation of a collaborative and assertive network between indigenous and non-indigenous researchers for the construction of research possibilities concerning different thematic approaches to native peoples from the 16th century to the present day. Accordingly, there will be academic activities throughout the year, including in-person and virtual international meetings such as the well-established Abya Yala International Congress on Indigenous Worlds (COIMI), as well as webinars, research projects and joint scientific publications.

Website: https://www.mundosindigenas.com.br/sobre-mundos-indigenas-abya-yala

Coordination

Pablo Ibañez-Bonillo (CHAM / NOVA FCSH, Portugal)

Juciene Ricarte Cardoso (PPGH - UFCG, Brasil; CHAM / NOVA FCSH, Portugal)

Organization