Prof. Dr. Henyo Baretto

July 29 / 2021

Presentation topic:

From fighting for rights to fighting not to lose them: an eyewitness account of contemporary indigenous peoples’ struggles in Brazil.

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Anchored on my trajectory as a publicly engaged social anthropologist, both in the university and in civil society NGOs, I will provide a personal account of contemporary indigenous peoples’ struggles in Brazil, based in a tripartite historical classification to which indigenous leaders themselves generally resort to recount these political struggles: the fight for having their rights acknowledged in the 1988 Constitution; the fight for having these rights effected on the ground in the following decades; and their current fight against initiatives to dismantle these rights advanced by powerful agribusiness and mining economic and political interests that support Bolsonaro authoritarian rule.

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PhD in Social Anthropology (State University of São Paulo, 2001).

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Teacher at the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Amazonas (1990-1994) and at the Department of Anthropology of the University of Brasília-UnB (1994-2006 and 2016 to present). Teacher at the Professional Master’s Program in Sustainability with Traditional Peoples and Lands of the University of Brasília.

Academic Director and Program Manager at IEB, a Brasília based NGO (2005 to 2016), coordinating a series of projects with indigenous peoples’ organizations on themes such as project management, advocacy, public policies, territorial management and participatory mapping with various partners.

Member of the ‘Commission of Indigenous Affairs’ (1992-1994; 1998-2002, 2017-2018), of the ‘Committee on Traditional Peoples, Environment and Development’ (2010-2012 and currently), and Secretary elect (2002-2004) of the Brazilian Association of Anthropology (ABA). Served in different terms as ABA representative in FUNAI’s Indigenist Council, IBAMA’s National Council of Protected Areas, and the Ministry of the Environment’s Management Council for Genetic Heritage.