INDIGENOUS BODIES AND SILENCED KNOWLEDGE: EPISTEMICIDE AND RESISTANCE IN INTERCULTURAL HEALTH POLICIES

Abstract

Introduction: Health policies aimed at indigenous peoples in Brazil face the challenge of overcoming institutional practices marked by epistemicide, i.e. the systematic erasure of traditional and ancestral knowledge. Despite the advance of legislation that recognizes interculturality, the biomedical model still prevails in professional training and in the services offered, perpetuating inequalities. Objective: To analyze, based on critical literature and Brazilian public policies, the manifestations of epistemicide and forms of resistance in the context of health policies aimed at indigenous peoples. Methodology: An integrative literature review was carried out, guided by the PICO strategy to define the guiding question. The selection of studies was conducted in the PubMed, LILACS, SciELO and Google Scholar databases, covering publications from 2018 to 2025. Results: The studies indicate that, even with partial legal recognition, indigenous knowledge remains marginalized in official protocols. Resistance occurs through the work of Indigenous Health Agents, ritual practices, autonomous production of knowledge and confrontation with colonial curricular structures. Conclusion: Overcoming epistemicide requires epistemic ruptures, horizontal recognition of traditional knowledge and political practices that value interculturality as the structuring axis of indigenous health.