1° International Community Extension Meeting

Casa Tainã, 13-15 December, 2024

Casa de Cultura Tainã and the Rede Mocambos held a gathering on December 13, 14, and 15, 2024. The event brought together community members, Quilombola territories, social movements, government representatives, academics, artists, and others to discuss a proposal focused on reclaiming established territories as spaces where knowledge flourishes. The goal was to create fairer frameworks for the relationship between these territories and institutions.

All of this aims to develop new strategies to keep expanding our awareness toward a way of living that aligns more with Afro-Indigenous worldviews, especially given these communities’ long-standing fight for autonomy against colonialist systems. This movement can ensure the sovereignty of communities worldwide without rejecting institutional involvement—but instead, claiming the space we’ve deserved since the time of our ancestors in African lands.

1. Universities have a historic debt to the indigenous, black and oppressed communities of Brazil and the world.

2. Community extension is the study of the community by the community and for the community.

3. The territory is the center of knowledge production, not the object.

4. Reverse the university-community relationship, so that the definition of research agendas comes from the communities.

5. Community extension is not charity. It is care, reciprocity and solidarity through what we have in common and what differentiates us.

6. Common infrastructures with free tecnologies are fundamental for community extension.

7. Our dreams don't fit into funding programs: we need to create community-based arrangements for mutual support.