Cultural Survival expresses our solidarity and support to the Indigenous leader of the Xakriabá Peoples, Célia Xakriabá, who, while serving as a congresswoman in Brazil, was racially attacked by other representatives in the Brazilian Congress, without a proper response from the Speaker. This occurred on the same night that the National Congress approved the dismantling of the country's main environmental policy and a political attack on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
As a representative, Célia Xakriabá represents the agenda of more than 300 Indigenous Peoples in the country and is one of the great voices of resistance to the historical violence that threatens their territories, cultures, bodies, and ways of life.
In the current scenario, the attacks on Célia are not isolated, but reflect a political project on the part of the Brazilian government to silence Indigenous Peoples, destroy the environment, and weaken the institutions of democracy.
Celia, may your strength as an Indigenous woman, and your journey in the Indigenous movement of collective and ancestral struggle, continue to open the paths of justice, because as you say: “Before the Brazil of the Crown, there is the Brazil of the Cocar (Feather headdress).”
Photo courtesy of Célia Xakriabá.
