INTRODUCTION:
Colonial violence has historically disrupted Afro-Indigenous ways of life in Brazil, producing profound impacts on health, care practices, and collective well-being. These processes continue to shape health inequities affecting Black and Indigenous populations. This study analyzes the relationship between colonial oppression of Afro-Indigenous modes of existence and the erosion of care, highlighting implications for communities, public health practices, teams, and service users.

METHODS:
This qualitative, decolonial and reflective study is grounded in Afro-Indigenous epistemologies, particularly the triad of observation, action, and orality¹’². The analysis draws on ten years of professional experience in the health field combined with participant observation in Afro-Brazilian cultural and religious spaces, including terreiros (Afro-Brazilian religious and community-based spaces), cultural centers, and samba schools. Empirical material also includes publicly available audiovisual records—two documentaries, one public lecture, and one interview—featuring priests, researchers, artists, and leaders¹-⁴. The material was examined through critical thematic analysis informed by Afro-Indigenous cosmoperceptions.

RESULTS:
The findings indicate that care occupies a central position in Afro-Indigenous cosmologies, understood as a relational practice sustaining life through balanced interactions among humans, non-humans, territories, and spiritual dimensions. Colonial processes—marked by genocide, enslavement, territorial dispossession, and epistemic violence—have systematically weakened these care practices³. This disruption generates ecological, psychosocial, cultural, and political consequences affecting public health, including increased vulnerability to illness, erosion of support networks, and reduced collective capacity to respond to health crises. The displacement of care as a core social value contributes to individual and collective suffering.

CONCLUSIONS:
Care can be understood as an ancestral technology for dignified existence⁴. Despite centuries of colonial oppression, Afro-Indigenous modes of caring persist in religious rituals, popular festivities, communal living structures, and everyday practices. Recognizing colonial violence, implementing reparative public policies, and protecting Afro-Indigenous bodies, beliefs, and territories are essential strategies for rebuilding collective well-being and advancing equity in public health.