Unshoe the method: cultivating indigenous knowledge with Pitaguary elders

Here you will get in touch with a decolonial methodological narrative grounded in the Pitaguary Indigenous Territory (Northeast Brazil), where Participatory Action Research (PAR) was indigenized through the collective cultivation of knowledge with the indigenous elders, co-authors of the intercultural knowledge generated. Rather than applying an external method, the process emerged from the territory, its cosmology, and the intergenerational relations that sustain community well-being. Trying to “unshoe the method,” the research unfolded as a relational cultivation practice: the land, the stories, and the elders' wisdom shaped the method and meanings of the research. Community yarning circles, visiting, testimonials and field diaries became tools rooted in reciprocity and trust. Thus, indigenizing PAR is presented in this article as a political-epistemic act that counters extractivist research logics and centers Indigenous elders as legitimate authors. The experience affirms that research with Indigenous peoples must grow from local ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies in order to be coherent with decolonial criticism.