Tuesday, March 19, 2024

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Indigenous Brazil Violated

Challenges and risks faced by indigenous peoples in today’s Brazil

Overview

The long trend of environmental degradation and the socio-cultural impacts of mainstream development in Brazil have undergone a giant rise after the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, leading some organisations to denounce the unacceptable intensification of violence and conflicts (e.g. New York Times, 21 Sep 2019). In that context, the fate of indigenous groups constitutes one of the most serious political and economic questions in the country. These developments directly contradict the tendency to recognise indigenous rights initiated in the re-democratisation period in the late 1970s, which led to the inclusion of explicit articles in the 1988 Constitution. Whereas the indigenous population is trying to resist and react using all possible channels and opportunities, there is still limited understanding of barriers, prospects and feelings about the new adverse context.

The research will address the impacts, perceptions and reactions of indigenous groups to the aggressive advance of conservative policies and social reforms by the new Brazilian administration. It will assess and theorise the combination of past legacies and new trends behind the intensification of violence affecting indigenous peoples.

"Critical indigenous studies are a growing area of interest not merely because of the specific dilemmas affecting subaltern groups, but as they help us to gain a broader understanding of the contradictions and the injustices of development ."

Some of the News items on this site are articles and blog-posts published by Latin America Bureau (LAB) on their website, and are reproduced here for their interest and relevance to the Indigenous Brazil Violated project.