Dominant models of knowledge are grounded in Western ideals of objectivity, universality, and neutrality, closely linked to Enlightenment rationalism and the neoliberal vision of the “knowledge society.” These frameworks equate scientific knowledge with progress while positioning non-industrialized societies through a deficit lens, thereby reproducing global hierarchies of development.

Since the mid-20th century, scholars have increasingly emphasized the historical, political, and cultural situatedness of knowledge. These critiques reveal how Western-centric epistemologies marginalize alternative ways of knowing, particularly those grounded in relationality, embodiment, memory, and land-based knowledge—a foundational dimension of Indigenous psychologies, where knowledge emerges through sustained relationships with place, territory, and more-than-human worlds.

In psychology, the dominance of universalized constructs—such as identity—often leads to decontextualization and the overlooking of local realities. This can result in the imposition of conceptual frameworks shaped by Western assumptions, thereby obscuring culturally and territorially grounded understandings of self, community, and wellbeing.

Indigenous psychology responds by affirming psychological knowledge rooted in Indigenous worldviews, emphasizing relational, collective, and land-based perspectives. Cultural psychology, from a distinct yet complementary standpoint, examines how psychological processes are culturally mediated, historically situated, and produced through social practices rather than residing solely within individuals.

This contribution draws on insights from the First Meeting of Indigenous Psychology held in São Paulo, Brazil, highlighting dialogues, practices, and reflections emerging from Indigenous scholars and communities. By sharing these insights, the text underscores the importance of epistemic plurality and collaborative knowledge production. Together, Indigenous psychology and cultural psychology point toward a shift from epistemic dominance to pluralism, from abstract theory to lived and place-based practice, and toward a more inclusive psychology that can engage the full diversity of human experience.

This research investigates the history of indigenous psychology in Brazil. It addresses the colonization of the territory of knowledge by historically constructed disciplinary categories. Before the Americas and Brazil were named by invaders, indigenous peoples on this continent were producing knowledge similar to what came to be called psychology in the secularized Christian humanist tradition. It provides a brief contextualization of five centuries of colonial and Brazilian societal efforts to exterminate or assimilate indigenous peoples, acting in various fields to prevent the continuity of indigenous life, memory, customs, practices, and reflections. Finally, it outlines the paths indigenous peoples have forged in dialogue with researchers from the humanities and social sciences toward psychology. The recent outcome is the development of indigenous psychology in Brazil, which embraces the diversity of its indigenous traditions. Adopting a dialogical perspective, the research prioritizes constructing a shared space in which indigenous proposals, articulated within psychological discourses and practices, guide processes of knowledge construction. These processes are committed to listening to and caring for indigenous lives in their entirety, including socioenvironmental care, respect for diversity, and welcoming foreigners.

In this presentation, I draw on five modes of inquiry or five sets of decolonial enactments that are crucial for imagining a decolonizing methods paradigm. These are: 1) Emphasizing positionality and self-reflexivity; 2) Centering analysis on legacies of colonialism, settler colonialism, and coloniality; 3) Approaching communities as co-producers of knowledge; 4) Grounding investigations in Indigenous efforts to reclaim land, language and collective memory; 5) Highlighting mutual accompaniment, solidarity, and emancipation from multiple forms of oppression (Sonn & Bhatia, 2025). One of the questions I hope to answer in this presentation is as follows: “What makes decolonial methods unique from other critically grounded methodological perspectives?” I argue that decolonial methods are distinct but draw on other critical methods to primarily challenge the coloniality of power and knowledge that permeates much of Eurocentric psychology. My aim is to demonstrate “how” to undo and “unlearn” Eurocentric forms of colonial knowledge and create new forms of decolonial knowledge. I will offer multiple examples of decolonial-based qualitative inquiry that aims to disrupt the legacies of colonialism and coloniality. We outline five concrete methodological tenets of an interdisciplinary decolonial/anticolonial methodology that does not separate theory from practice.