With their land on the line, Indigenous Brazilians gather for landmark ruling
by Ana Ionova on 27 August 2021
Thousands of Indigenous people marched in Brazil’s capital this week, ahead of a landmark Supreme Federal Court ruling that activists warn could hamper the official recognition of Indigenous people’s territories and roll back their rights in the country.
About 6,000 leaders from 176 Indigenous groups camped in tents outside the courthouse in the heart of Brasília, the capital, demanding a decision in favor of Indigenous rights. The weeklong demonstrations are believed to be Brazil’s largest mobilization of Indigenous people in more than three decades, according to organizers.
“Indigenous people are facing a series of threats at this moment,” said Dinamam Tuxá, executive coordinator of APIB, Brazil’s largest Indigenous organization, in a phone interview with Mongabay. “And we decided to resist. Because we cannot die within our territories without fighting back, without coming here to Brasília to spread our message and show the society our suffering.”
A focus of the demonstrations is a much-anticipated Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruling that will set an important precedent for whether courts can deny land claims by Indigenous people whose ancestral lands were appropriated before 1988. This cutoff date, known as the marco temporal, marks the year the Brazilian Constitution came into force and officially recognized the land rights of Native people.
The demonstrators, clad in traditional Indigenous dress, chanted, danced and waved signs painted with the slogan of their movement, “Struggle for Life,” or Luta Pela Vida in Portuguese, which they are also using on social media through the hashtags #MarcoTemporalNão and #AcampamentoLutaPelaVida. Supporters in cities around the world, from London to San Francisco, have also held protests in solidarity with Brazil’s Indigenous people, mobilized by NGOs supporting the fight.
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