Ariene Susui, presented her Dissertation Defense on August 12, at 3:00 pm, by the Federal University of Roraima - UFRR, with the theme: "Indigenous Communication in Roraima and the Creation of new digital territorialities: Wakywai Network, Resistances and Amazonian Knowledge." Its evaluation panel included Eloy Terena, Jurist, anthropologist, writer and Indigenous Lawyer of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – APIB and professors Vilso Santi and Lisiane Machado, in addition to the Network's communicators, friends and family who watched the defense carefully online.
Ariene had the important guidance of Professor Vângela Morais, who wrote the book: Children of God and Grandchildren of Makunaima: Appropriations of Catholicism in Macuxi lands, in the Maturuca Indigenous Land, Raposa Serra do Sol.
Ariene Susui, 25 years old, is from the Wapichana people, from the Truaru da Cabeceira indigenous community, Murupú region, T.I Truaru. An indigenous activist, she has been working since the age of 14 in the indigenous movement for the participation of young people and women in political, environmental and education discussions. She has a degree in Social Communication and Journalism from UFRR since 2021, and now has a Master's degree in Communication, through the Graduate Program in Communication at the Federal University of Roraima (PPGCOM-UFRR), in addition to having already served as a communication advisor for the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) in 2019 and a communication technician for the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab) in 2021 and 2022.
According to Ariene, the feeling is one of gratitude.
"First of all, this is not just an achievement of mine, it is an achievement that involves our indigenous communication as a strategy of struggle, of resistance. So it is also an achievement of the indigenous movement itself, which is in this struggle. This feeling of being the first indigenous woman to graduate and of becoming a master through the graduate program, is also the achievement of our leaders. So it is our achievement, she said"
Ariene was at the forefront of one of the lines she created of the Wakywai Network of Indigenous Communicators. In her dissertation defense, she cited the beginning of the training of communicators in 2019, until the formulation of the current name that translated from Wapichana meansOur News, (Wa = our /kywai = news), a name that the communicators themselves chose in 2020. Since then, the network has thirty collaborators from 10 indigenous regions, Murupu, Serra Lua, Tabaio, Baixo Cotingo, Raposa, Serras, Surumu, Amajari, Alto Cauamé and Wai Wai, from the Macuxi, Wapichana, Patoma, Yekuana and Wai Wai peoples, with at least three in each region, who work with their grassroots leaders, in photographic records, denunciations, and also tell a little about the routine and reality of the communities on the social networks that some of the regions have created.
The Indigenous Council of Roraima congratulates the Master in Social Communication Ariene Susui, for her Achievement, and ours as an Indigenous Movement, we remain firm.