In a year marked with unprecedented challenges, particularly for the Amazon rainforest and its peoples, a bright light emerged this past October when Sawré Muybu – an embattled territory of Brazil’s Munduruku people – advanced to the final stage of its long demarcation process.
To commemorate this momentous victory, the village of Sawré Muybu hosted a celebration, gathering their relatives from across the vast stretches of their ancestral homelands known as Mundurukânia. Rejoicing in three days of communion, the intergenerational celebration centered on the community’s joy and gratitude. The event was a rare and much-needed moment to appreciate a hard-fought collective achievement. Amazon Watch was honored to document this historic moment with Anderson Barbosa’s striking photos.
The news marks a crucial step in the decades-long struggle to enshrine federal protections on the Munduruku’s ancestral homelands. Amid this fight, the Indigenous nation innovated and advanced land defense strategies such as auto-demarcation, positioning themselves at the vanguard of Brazil’s growing Demarcation Now! movement.
The victory also reaffirms the Lula administration’s commitment to Indigenous land titling, which is a pillar in its stated goal of protecting the Amazon. Last week saw the demarcation of three new Indigenous territories, increasing the number of lands titled under Lula to 13. The move signaled renewed momentum toward the government’s promise to demarcate an additional 16 territories, including those in the Amazon. Such recognition of constitutional land rights is fundamental as Indigenous peoples resist the simultaneous assault on these rights underway in Brazil’s Congress and Supreme Court.
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Sawré Muybu’s identification has crucial environmental importance in a region facing expanding land encroachment and extractivism. The territory’s 178,000 hectares of primary forests and vibrant biodiversity are vital for the ecological integrity of the middle Tapajós River basin, which is threatened by illegal miners, loggers, and massive infrastructure projects such as the Ferrogrão railway. The definitive demarcation of Sawré Muybu is imperative, as it would obstruct these destructive activities and fortify existing Indigenous-led efforts to safeguard this critical biome.
Amazon Watch has stood in solidarity with the Munduruku for more than 10 years, mobilizing financial, advocacy, and legal support as our partners defeated a mega-dam on the Tapajós and expelled one of the world’s largest mining companies vying for the minerals under Sawré Muybu. As the Munduruku people press the Indigenous agency FUNAI and the office of President Lula’s Chief of Staff to finalize the official demarcation process, they’ve announced their next land titling battle: the recognition of an adjacent ancestral land known as Sawré Bap’im. Protecting these lands is essential for mitigating the climate crisis and curbing global deforestation rates. This is the pathway to permanent protection of the Amazon.
As the months and years ahead present new terrains of struggle, the tenacity and resilience of frontline Amazonian Indigenous communities ground our collective movement in a sense of critical hope. We will not waver in our support of the Munduruku’s life-giving initiatives and plan to celebrate more victories alongside them again in the years ahead.
