On the day of the abolition of slavery In Brazil, we want to invite you to free yourself from colonial patterns that are perpetuated in our daily lives today, which have transformed us into descendant colonists, slaves of the system and reproducers of exploratory models that limit and restrict our world views and references for acting in society.
To do this, we want to tell the story of a collective construction, of the birth of a living organism, which proposes a new business model, but also a path to liberation for all of us.
Saying that the revolution is collective may seem like a catchphrase, but this reflection is a call to action to do something different from what we were taught to do. What we wear and what we consider beautiful and desirable goes through a construction of subjectivities, shaped by the media, by intellectuals and influencers, by books and schools, it is a social construction established over the centuries. To the schools from primary to higher education has been a colonial device that exterminates cultures, memories, knowledge and legacies of the original Afro and indigenous peoples in Brazil, introducing unique narratives based on Eurocentric thinking.
Since 2003 and 2008, the mandatory teaching of African and Afro-Brazilian history and cultures has been established. indigenousin elementary and secondary education, by laws 10,639 and 11,645. Even after two decades, laws have had great difficulty being implemented in practice and this scenario also demonstrates that bodies and knowledge of black and indigenous people continue to be “ejected” from knowledge spaces.
In an expanded panorama for higher education, the Brasilia newspaper announced that only 3% of universities have racial equality among professors, in a look at higher education design courses, we found a majority of white students, who represent 70% of designers in training (CES). In a country with 56.6% of the black population like Brazil, according to IBGEthis scenario reveals the structural racism that permeates society and is consolidated in institutions from primary to higher education.
To modify structures, it is necessary to create “cracks in the system” as visual artist Macuxi Jaider Esbell said, an invitation to build new bases based on the institution that shapes our thinking and acting in the world: the school.
It was in the search to bring about a change in mental pattern, from the individual and universal Western model to collective and pluricultural action, that I present the birth of the Ẹwá Poranga pluricultural consultancy school.
Its idealization is articulated by designer and researcher Julia Vidal, who joins together with the decolonial educational institutions Instituto Hoju, UCKAY and the Universidade Indígena Pluriétnica Aldeia Marakanà, to create a collective movement and more recently a new partnership has arrived, the Escola Decolonial Fashion Revolution.
Collectivity is a fundamental social construction in original societies, which has been presented in contemporary times as an innovation. It is the basis for the continuous making of Ẹwá Poranga, which has been built by many hands with the “weaver” teachers: Julia Otomorinhori´õ, Papion Cristiane Carla Pantoja, Daise Rosas, Kaká Portilho, together with a feminine ecosystem that grows day by day to dream this dream, today there are a total of 15 women, who give life to a living organism woven into a web.
The name Ẹwá Poranga means beauty, in the Yoruba and Old Tupi languages, respectively. It is a free and consultancy school that trains multipliers based on pluricultural content and with a teaching staff of Afro-descendant, African and Amerindian masters, who combine diverse knowledge and practices of indigenous peoples in a multidisciplinary way to be implemented in the most diverse areas of activity.
Although it was a pioneer in the proposal to bring together the teaching of Afro and indigenous fashion in the same educational experience, along with and after its launch, other schools with decolonial teaching are being born every day and this strengthens the construction of our dreams of an ancestral future, because in antagonism to the Eurocentric and capital norm, we know that we are not competitors, but we are co-existants and articulators of a new world vision, which is created by many and enables the foundations of a more plural and diverse society.
At a time when individual “seals” on social networks and the “cult of the pioneer, unique and universal” are praised, we emphasize that if we continue in isolation we will die as a movement and, if we follow a collective journey, we begin to deconstruct the colonial logic that establishes “separate and dominate”.
In a feeling of brotherhood, the need to build plots and strengthen common movements, since 2023, the multicultural consultancy school Ẹwá Poranga ea Escola Decolonial do Fashion Revolution come together to provide decolonial content to an even wider audience. In this way, they present a new business model with a content module and web of teachers intertwined to facilitate the new foundations of Brazilian fashion teaching.
For a long time, it was necessary to create decolonial and resistance paths. However, after more than 500 years, we understand that our ancestors lead us to build and keep stories of liberation alive, which allow us to create paths and supports for multiple existences. Acting collectively, inspiring new practices, strengthening institutions and movements with common purposes, creating living ecosystems of knowledge and implementation of new practices in the most diverse areas of activity is urgent in combating the monoculture installed in our society.
Today, we want to invite you to collective construction, which shows us the direction of a path of liberation!
