Cyberculture and the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by indigenous leadership as tools for the recognition of cultural identity: other territories and spaces of resistance

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the use of ICT, especially social media, by indigenous leaders as tools for the recognition of cultural identity. In intercultural processes, ICT reveal themselves as important tools, which aim to strengthen educational, political, social and cultural relations within the scope of indigenous communities, with the potential to go beyond this context, although many still do not have access in the current Brazilian society, mainly ethnic minorities, as many villages are located in distant cities and generally without access to the Internet. From the study, reading and fi eldwork on the relation of the theme proposed here, which involves ICT, interculturality and the identity of indigenous peoples, the following questions arose: how ICT is used by indigenous leaders in order to recognize the culture of peoples originating? What tools or platforms do they use for this recognition of their ethnic identity? What is the role of ICT in the work developed by these indigenous people? For the development of the investigation, we concentrated the theoretical basis, mainly in the readings of the following thinkers: Hall (2005), Freire (1979/1983), Fleuri (2005), Levy (1999) and Castells (1999). The methodology adopted was ethnographic research, bibliographic and documentary research, with a qualitative approach. An interview was also conducted with a young indigenous student, leader of the Pitaguary community. The results and conclusions lead us to refl ect on interculturality with positive data, since the indigenous people appropriate and use ICT knowledge to recognize their own culture, their origins, their history and native heritage.