foto mulher indígena com cabelos preto, compridos, com camiseta peita com a frase lute como uma garota no idioma kaingang

INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND THE STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION by Ananda Vilela

April 30, 2021

In a scenario of constant struggle and resistance, indigenous women leaders bring up gender oppression within the context of indigenous and non-indigenous social relations.

On the 19th of April in Brazil, the Day of Indigenous Resistance is celebrated. This day was established in 1943, from the Inter-American Indian Congress in 1940, in Mexico. In some other Latin American countries, this day is celebrated on Día del Campesino, on several different dates depending on the country. On September 5, Indigenous Women's Day is celebrated, institutionalized at the II Meeting of Organizations and Movements of America in Bolivia, in 1983.

The commemoration of this date represents the recognition of the struggle of indigenous peoples throughout Latin America, who claim their full humanity and recognition of their rights by the political and economic groups that make up Latin American societies.

In a scenario of constant struggle and resistance, indigenous women leaders bring up gender oppression within the context of indigenous and non-indigenous social relations. Indigenous women still struggle for access to spaces of power, labor and academic circles. We have very few indigenous colleagues in the classrooms, very few indigenous teachers, lawyers, doctors, engineers.

Indigenous women are constantly excluded from spheres of power, after all, the State itself and social hierarchical relations depend on daily doses of violence and exclusion to remain constant. Despite this institutionalization, even during the government of Getúlio Vargas in Brazil, subsequent governments continued the celebrations through practices of integration of indigenous peoples. This integration takes place via the silencing of indigenous culture, genocide, epistemicide against ancestral knowledge. The military government in Brazil, but not only, undertook the silencing of indigenous peoples and integration with a focus on racial democracy with the murder of thousands of indigenous men and sexual violence against indigenous women. Therefore, despite the institutionalization of these celebrations, indigenous peoples have been suffering from numerous oppressions by the State, not only in Brazil, but throughout the continent.

In the Brazilian case, 2019 represented a milestone in the struggle of indigenous women against violence and claiming recognition of their importance to society. In April of this year, at the Terra Livre Camp, held in Brasilia, indigenous women brought violence against women to the agenda, affirming their role in equality with indigenous men, being leaders and warriors of their communities. In the same year, the March of Indigenous Women, in August, represented a key turning point in the relationship and dissemination of the struggles of indigenous women in the country.

From the Marcha das Mulheres Indígenas, new forms of claim were built by these women, seeking greater political participation, mainly on social networks, due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ways in which the indigenous population has been affected by this health crisis.

The practice of indigenous struggle, especially by indigenous women, represents points beyond those theorized by white and western feminisms. Considering race, gender and class relations, indigenous women have been shedding light on the oppressions that operate on their lives and bodies. In this context of struggle, in March 2021, indigenous women created ANMIGA - National Articulation of Indigenous Women Warriors of Ancestrality , "a great articulation of indigenous women from all biomes of Brazil, with knowledge, with traditions, with struggles that add up, converge , which brought together women mobilized to guarantee indigenous rights and the lives of our Peoples”. This association marks another step in the fight against oppression in Brazil.

Recognizing the voice of indigenous women in feminism concerns not only proposals for inclusion and diversity, but also recognizing the humanity of these women and their power in building free societies, both in terms of gender relations and racial dynamics. Ancestral knowledge from indigenous women has much to contribute to the constitution of less unequal societies and goes beyond celebrations on specific days. The insertion of indigenous women in the political, economic and social spheres of power tends to broaden our notions of these relationships.

“Earth women,
water women,
biome women,
women spirituality,
tree women,
root women,
seed women
and not women only
warriors of ancestry.”

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black and white photo of Ananda, woman, black, curly medium brown hair. It is with a white breast with the phrase research like a girl in black.
Ananda Vilela , a black woman from the outskirts of Suzano, in Greater São Paulo. PhD student in International Relations at PUC-Rio and Master at the same institution. I research race and racism in International Relations and also the intersections between race, gender and class in social relations.