“Brazil shall never go without us again”: Indigenous peoples in the 2022 Population Census

Abstract

the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, acronym in Portuguese) and presented the first results of the 2022 Demographic Census on the country's Indigenous peoples. The striking figure of 1,693,535 individuals who declared themselves Indigenous represents an 88% increase compared to the previous 2010 census, which recorded approximately 890,000. At the event, Sônia Guajajara, the minister for Indigenous Peoples, stated "Brazil shall never go without us again" which emphasizes the centrality of census data for inclusion and visibility.In the history of national censuses in Brazil, the first of which took place in 1872, the Indigenous population was included in various ways, usually subsumed under the parda [mixed-race] category or variants. It was only after the 1991 census that the category "Indigenous" has been systematically accounted for in the question "What is your color or race?". In recent times, the IBGE has continuously collected data on the Indigenous population in four censuses, namely : 1991, 2000, 2010, and 2022. It is a relatively short historical series, but of enormous significance and implication in terms of demographic visibility for this population.Data collection on the Indigenous population in national censuses, as well as the existence of records in other public statistics sources -such as health information systems -is closely associated with changes implemented after enactment of the 1988 Brazilian Federal Constitution, which states that "Indians shall have their social organization, customs, languages, creeds and traditions recognized" (Article 231). Making Indigenous peoples visible in public statistics is thus part of this national historical and sociopolitical process, which is also associated with the increased focus on Indigenous populations internationally and in Latin America, with an effort by statistical institutes to promote methodological changes in the censuses, seeking to portray ethnic-racial diversity 1,2 .As for detailed ethnic and sociocultural characteristics, it was only after the 2010 census that data such as specific ethnic belonging and Indigenous languages spoken in households began to be collected. In the 2022 census, the topics investigated were expanded, with the creation of a specific questionnaire on Indigenous communities, for example. There were also efforts to expand the "territorial base" for identifying Indigenous households, with the updating of Indigenous Lands from 2010 to 2022, and the identification of so-called "Indigenous localities" in the national territory, through a "collaborative cartography" 3 , with information provided by Indigenous organizations, government