With more than 50% of the indigenous peoples directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and more than 27,000 indigenous people infected by the virus, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), together with all its grassroots organizations, launched an international mobilization to save lives!

The live “Maracá – Indigenous Emergency” intends to mobilize support for the emergency plan built by indigenous peoples in order to face this moment.

The live, held on August 9, was divided into a series of eight episodes to draw attention to the seriousness of the moment and build a collective effort to confront the pandemic.

Sound the Maracá

Strengthen our international mobilization to save indigenous lives.

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Violations against indigenous peoples grew during this pandemic period. Click below to report their occurancy.

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Memorial of Indigenous Life

Help to keep the memory of our relatives alive. Click below to check the Memorial or send your tribute in video, image, audio or text to the memorial.

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COVID-19 arrived in the indigenous territories in an overwhelming way. Indigenous lives are being lost at an increasing pace. We are facing an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy and we need to come together and act. The time is now!

The Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, APIB) presents an indigenous emergency plan to confront COVID-19 in Brazil and calls on everyone to support measures that can save lives and exercise solidarity. Indigenous peoples are among the most vulnerable groups to the spread of the disease and are without proper conditions to face the pandemic. We need everyone’s support.

This is a plan to orient the actions of indigenous organizations linked to APIB and partnering non-indigenous institutions. To this end, it proposes general guidelines for the preparation of regional and local action plans to be presented by the organizations executing the proposals. In this sense, the plan will be implemented in a cooperative manner throughout the national territory in order to strengthen and enhance network actions. Likewise, it intends to institutionally strengthen indigenous organizations linked to APIB and other partners of the Brazilian indigenous movement.

The proposals within this emergency plan are the result of two broad participatory processes, the Acampamento Terra Livre (Free Earth Camp) and the Assembleia Nacional de Resistência Indígena (National Assembly of Indigenous Resistance), both carried out in 2020 in a virtual form due to the pandemic. These events included countless indigenous leaders from all over the country, in addition to specialists in indigenous health from various civil society organizations

OVERVIEW OF COVID-19 WITHIN THE INDIGENOUS POPULATION

CHECK THE DATA

HOW HAS COVID-19 REACHED THE TERRITORIES?

FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT
IS
THE MAIN
TRANSMITTING
AGENT OF
COVID-19

INSTITUTIONAL
RACISM,
FAKE NEWS,
AND DISEASE
RELATIVIZATION

Lack of assistance by SESAI to indigenous people living in urban contexts and outside not-sanctioned territories. Hospitals’ willingness to register indigenous people living in urban contexts as browns. The National Government’s stance on the COVID-19 crisis has increased crimes of racism against indigenous communities in small towns. Several indigenous people refuse to be tested or undergo treatment because of racism, which has also increased internal conflicts in communities.

FRIGORIFIC AND

SLAUGHTERHOUSES

The main responsible for introducing the virus in several villages of Mato Grosso do Sul was the Agribusiness. In the Dourados Indigenous Reserve – where the first death was recorded by a Guarani Kaiowá – the disease was rought by a JBS Frigorific employee, according to information from a local newspaper, the Repórter Brasil.
The pattern is repeated in western Paraná, in the indigenous lands of Santa Catarina, and in Rio Grande do Sul.
The first infected cases within these territories were registered among the indigenous people of the Kaingang and Guarani Mbya peoples. These individuals were employees of the local frigorific sector.