Just days after a groundbreaking supreme court victory, Sônia Guajajara, Brazil’s first minister for Indigenous peoples, has a new target in her sights.
She is preparing to oppose efforts in the Brazilian parliament, backed by the agricultural business lobby, to reinstate the controversial “time limit” (“marco temporal”). This legal doctrine established restrictions for Indigenous land claims, and so favoured farmers, miners and land grabbers. The decision to abolish the time limit bolstered the Indigenous campaign for land rights in Brazil and Latin America.
But opposition quickly escalated, with senate committee members hastening discussions to re-establish the doctrine in law.
If that happens, it would mean Indigenous communities will only be able to claim rights to lands occupied or requested as of 5 October 1988. Additionally, it would put the onus on the Indigenous peoples to substantiate occupation claims, complicating matters for nomadic tribes or those who were pushed off due to the threats of land usurpers.
“It will be a new battle. It is already, and we must face it,” says Guajajara on a visit to the Guardian offices in London.
Born in Araribóia, in Maranhão, north-eastern Brazil, Sônia Bone de Souza Silva Santos, 49, known as Sônia Guajajara, is the latest political figure to emerge from some of the country’s most marginalised communities. And she is on the frontline of this new fight over land rights.
Like the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the current environment minister, Marina Silva, Guajajara came from poverty. Her parents were illiterate; to go to school she had to leave home aged 10 to study in another city, Imperatriz. She made it to university, where she graduated in not just one field but two: literature and nursing, alongside specialising in special education at the State University of Maranhão.
Such an education shaped her political activism: as a feminist, challenging the standard patriarchy of Brazilian society; as a socialist, fighting for equal opportunities; and as an Indigenous person, advocating for the right to land.
Over two decades of advocacy for Indigenous peoples, Guajajara built a political career. In 2017, as executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, a leading non-governmental organisation, she took the stage alongside singer Alicia Keys, who was performing in Rio, to speak out against the conservative government of Michel Temer.
The following year, she was chosen as the vice-presidential candidate alongside the socialist Guilherme Boulos, becoming the first Indigenous person to run for office.
She was at the forefront of the fight against the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, denouncing its anti-Indigenous policies, environmental destruction and Covid policy, which disproportionately affected Indigenous peoples. Yet she never lost her ability to communicate with the federal capital’s predominantly white and male political elites. “The radicalisation either way won’t solve the conflicts. We must find a middle ground to reduce this violent situation,” she says.
Guajajara’s international recognition grew in 2022 when she featured on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Boulos said in a tribute to her: “Sônia is an inspiration, not just for me but for millions of Brazilians who dream of a country that settles its debts with its past and finally welcomes the future.”
Last October, she became the first Indigenous woman elected as federal deputy for the state of São Paulo. In November, she was at Cop26, advocating for a $1.7bn fund to support Indigenous peoples, environmental protection projects and to combat forest degradation. In January, she became the first minister of the new ministry of Indigenous peoples.
“It took a long time for us to have the ministry, and an Indigenous person at the head of the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples. How did we wait so long without reacting and having Indigenous people in charge?” she asks. “It is indeed an unprecedented moment.”
“The supreme court’s decision is a significant victory. We already knew that the congress, the chamber and the senate would not be happy with this outcome. After all, they are determined to reinstate the time limit for Indigenous lands,” says Guajajara.
Guajajara says there is now space for an agreement with agribusiness. The government is not opposed, she says, to compensating landowners who acted “in good faith” by buying land titles from the state, but land grabbers cannot receive the same treatment. “The supreme court will guide the direction, and we will work on this path to establish criteria for compensation to find a balance.
“We now have room for dialogue, and we have already started to discuss with leaders of this sector,” says Guajajara . “However, there is a very established narrative about the losses due to the boundaries of the Indigenous land. And I say: stop spreading falsehoods that Indigenous lands will take over private property. The more this is said, the more it creates a climate of conflict and violence.”
Lula’s new administration has demarcated eight new Indigenous territories in the states of Amazonas, Acre, Alagoas, Ceará, Goiás and Rio Grande do Sul, a move unprecedented since Dilma Rousseff’s government fell in 2016. This initiative contrasts starkly with the intervening administrations of Temer and Bolsonaro, which made no demarcation efforts and supported the time limit doctrine.
Agribusiness proponents – such as Marcelo Bertoni, the president of the Federation of Agriculture and Livestock of Mato Grosso do Sul, and Paulo Sergio Aguiar, the vice-president of the Brazilian Cotton Producers Association – voiced concerns over perceived injustices and claimed there would be an “agrarian chaos”, predicting losses in exports equivalent to £37.2bn. They want compensation for farmers.
Guajajara also faces the rise of illicit mining. MapBiomas, a joint project of NGOs, researchers and technology startups, revealed a staggering increase in mining encroachment on Indigenous territories during Bolsonaro’s administration. According to the report, the mining area increased by 65%, and mining advancement on Indigenous lands rose 265% in four years.
There was also a 74.7% increase in the number of illegal occupants. “The results from an environmental and social standpoint are disastrous,” said César Diniz, the technical coordinator of mining mapping at MapBiomas, in a webinar presenting the data last week.
Guajajara says that addressing illegal mining and environmental and social impacts is as vital as negotiating with landowners. “There are many challenges at the same time. Defeating the time limit is a huge victory that paves the way for us to advance on other themes. Illegal mining on Indigenous lands has advanced. It is visible.”
However, she says “there is no need to invest so much in new technologies” in the fight against climate change. “It is proven that where there is Indigenous presence, there is standing forest, clean water and poison-free food. More than ever, it is time for the world to look at this way of life of Indigenous peoples.”
