When hundreds of Indigenous groups congregated in the Brazilian capital at the end of April it was with an explicit agenda: to advance the historic institutional representation that Indigenous people had secured through president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s fledgling administration, and to ensure they don’t just survive but thrive.
Brasilia’s 19th Free Land Camp or Acampamento Terra Livre (ATL) drew an estimated 6,000 people, the largest annual gathering of Indigenous peoples in the world, according to the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil – APIB in the initials of its Portuguese name. They danced and they sang at the site where, just three months before, supporters of ousted president Jair Bolsonaro had camped after a violent insurrectionist attack on the headquarters of the Brazilian government.
For Vanda Witoto, a prominent leader from north-western state of Amazonas, the goal of the camp was to get the federal government to implement “policies that respect our autonomy and our way of life”.
