Circles of cure and care with rural black women and quilombolas

extension and dialogue of knowledges

Abstract

In this experience report of a Brazilian extensionist activity, traditional and popular knowledge is majorly produced by Black women in their diversity of communities of origin. This plurality is reflected in cure and care practices to deal with health and disease processes, through resources such as medicinal plants, prayers, blessings, as well as the crafts of herbalists, midwives and healers. And in order to establish bridges and connections between the different modes of production and socialization of health care, 37 women from rural black communities and quilombolas, from the Brazilian states of Bahia and Sergipe, were invited to participate in the action called “Circles of cure and care”. Developed from five thematic axes, this activity sought to promote learning spaces mediated by the co-
presence of popular, traditional knowledge and the knowledges that produced by the University. As a result, beyond the strengthening of bonds, socialization, and visibility towards their ancestral knowledge of cure and care, it was produced a notebook called “Cure and Care: from the ancestral female to the popular knowledge,” that brought back the main topics discussed in the extension activity. Considering that those knowledges are directly vinculated to the autonomy of women and their communities, we highlight the need for the undergraduate’s majors in the area of health in the Brazilian public universities to promote spaces for ontological and epistemic dialogue that reveal the diversity and multiplicity of perspectives on health, disease and care.