There Will Not Be a Centimetre More of Indigenous Land
In the autumn of 2021, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is accused of genocide at the International Court in The Hague for, “an explicit, systematic and intentional anti-native-people policy”.
President Bolsonaro has been at the helm of Brazil since 2019. Under his leadership, the destruction of the Amazon rainforest has increased, environmental protection programs have been abolished and indigenous peoples have experienced increased pressure from cattle ranchers and mining companies to invade their land, according to national and International NGO’s.
The desire to capitalise the nature and create economic development is not unique to the politics of Bolsonaro and have been the common characteristics of capitalist economy since industrialisation all over the world. However, the environmental damages of the Amazon rainforest, the rights and identity of the indigenous people living in Brazil is under increased pressure under Bolsonaro’s administration: “If I become president there will not be a centimetre more of indigenous land,” Bolsonaro stated in his presidential campaign before getting elected.
In 2021, new legislation in the form of a bill known as PL 490 threatens to cancel legal protections for Indigenous territories. Originally, a protection of the indigenous land and culture that was secured by the Brazilian constitution in 1988 after 20 years of military dictatorship. In June 2021, the lower house of the Brazilian parliament approved a draft of the bill. If lawmakers pass the bill, it will end Indigenous people’s right to be consulted on the use of their land.
‘There Will Not Be a Centimetre More of Indigenous Land’ is a visual investigation into the increased push for economic development in the largest state of Brazil, the Amazonas, effects the indigenous people, their territories, and their struggle for human rights.