The African and Afro-Brazilian presence in the museums of Santa Catarina

Abstract

In this thesis, we seek to investigate and discuss how Africans and Afro-Brazilians are represented in the museological institutions of the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. But above all, to understand how these institutions have acted as tools of construction/annulment of identities from representations, presences and absences, in the specific case of populations of African origin, seeking to identify and present proposals that may contribute to a public policy for the sector. Thus, initially, we seek to understand the public policies focused on museums and their interfaces with the policies of racial equality promotion, aimed at Afro-Brazilian populations and their articulations at the federal level. In the second step, we focus on Santa Catarina, trying to understand the relations between these policies, the preservation of heritage and to carry out a study about the museums of the state and the policies that are inserted at the state and national levels. Also, from the application of research instruments, we tried to map the museums in Santa Catarina that have collection related to populations of African origin, as well as represent them in exhibitions and other activities, and how they perceive the theme in their institutions. And from the diagnosis and tabulation of the data, we start from a historical approach of this process, outlining the mentalities that marked the construction of the identities the state. Finally, we seek to work in the field from the premises of social museology, with the proposition of actions, which we call affirmative action of museological character, initiatives of formation and training on museum and Afro-Brazilian memory and culture, aiming to contribute to the construction of public policies that articulate museums and the promotion of racial equality, which contribute to the valorization of diversity and the strengthening of the antiracist struggle in the state of Santa Catarina.

Keywords: Museums – Memory – Heritage – Afro-Brazilians – Santa Catarina