A política da (re) existência: o projeto da União das Nações Indígenas (UNI) e sua proposta para os “índios” do Brasil

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the role of the Union of Indigenous Nations (UNI) as an expression of Indigenous peoples’ politics of (re)existence in Brazil during the civil-military dictatorship and the process of redemocratization. It examines how the UNI, the first nationwide Indigenous organization led by Indigenous people themselves, articulated an autonomous political project grounded in self-determination, the defense of territorial rights, and the redefinition of relations between Indigenous peoples and the Brazilian State. The study is based on the hypothesis that Indigenous peoples entered the 1987–1988 National Constituent Assembly as an organized political force with proposals of their own. Rather than reproducing a political project based on the parameters of the Western nation-state, these proposals affirmed the self-organization of the different Indigenous nations and challenged the monocultural paradigm by advocating the reconfiguration of the country from a plurinational perspective. Grounded in decolonial approaches and in dialogue with Indigenous epistemologies and intellectuals, the research employs the concept of the politics of (re)existence as an analytical framework for understanding strategies of organization, interethnic articulation, and contestation over spaces of power. Methodologically, it applies Content Analysis (CA) to Indigenous and pro-Indigenous periodicals, institutional documents, interviews, and digitized sources available in the Armazém Memória archive. The findings demonstrate that the UNI constituted a space of Indigenous political and epistemic agency, capable of confronting the tutelary regime historically imposed by the State and playing a decisive role in the achievements incorporated into Articles 231 and 232 of the 1988 Federal Constitution. The dissertation concludes that the organization occupied a central position in the formulation of autonomous Indigenous political thought, contributing to the expansion of differentiated citizenship and the redefinition of democratic horizons in contemporary Brazil.