Our (R)existence travels the world with our feet and minds connected to the ground of our ancestral territories, which remain alive!
We are united in defense of our body-territories and the continuity of our Indigenous ways of living.
We understand that Indigenous women are deeply connected to their territories. We are body-territory at the same time. There is no separation: violating our bodies is violating the Earth; protecting our bodies is protecting our territories. This is how we belong and recognize ourselves. We live in a world where body, territory, ancestral knowledge, and nature are parts of the same life. Everything is connected: what affects us affects life as a whole.
We work to mobilize and politically strengthen Indigenous women, promote national and international advocacy actions, confront violence, racism, and colonialism, and strengthen public policies with the leadership and protagonism of Indigenous women.
From Indigenous women who, in the face of historical and ongoing violence against our bodies and our peoples, chose to rise. In Brasília, during the Free Land Camp (Acampamento Terra Livre – ATL) in 2019, we created an organic space for action, which grew stronger with the realization of the First Indigenous Women’s March that same year, on August 9, the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. We brought together 2,500 women from 130 peoples under the motto: “Territory: Our Body, Our Spirit.”
During the pandemic, when the Earth cried out under the attacks of a genocidal political agenda, we stood at the forefront: caring, denouncing, and organizing. In 2020, we carried out the largest virtual mobilization of Indigenous women, built support networks, developed territorial plans, and took on the commitment to be a force of healing and resistance.
It was within this context of urgency and collective strength that we recognized the need to consolidate our organization. On March 8, 2021, International Women’s Day, we officially founded ANMIGA. Our Manifesto of Brazil’s First Women marked this political positioning. We structured ourselves as a living network, with different bodies that are nourished by listening, ancestry, and the ground of our territories, ensuring Indigenous women’s participation in decision-making and political action across all biomes. We built a decentralized, horizontal, and living political structure composed of four bodies:
The Root Women form our guiding body with territorial engagement.
How do we recognize an Indigenous Root Woman?
Each Indigenous territory nominates or elects a woman to take on this role of local articulation and knowledge-sharing.
Main responsibilities:
Term of service:
Root Women serve for two years, with the possibility of renewal through the nomination of grassroots organizations from each territory.
The Seed Women form our consultative body.
How do we recognize an Indigenous Seed Woman?
Indigenous women who are nominated by ANMIGA’s grassroots women’s organizations at the state level may become Seed Women.
When there is no state-level grassroots organization, the nomination is made by the collective of Root Women from that state.
The selections take place during gatherings, assemblies, seminars, or other activities promoted by the Biome Women and Root Women bodies.
Main responsibilities:
Term of service:
Seed Women may serve for two years, with the possibility of renewal in the role.
The Biome Women form our mobilizing, coordinating, and consultative body.
How do we recognize an Indigenous Biome Woman?
Indigenous women chosen by ANMIGA’s co-founders, during specific meetings led by the Biome Women, may be appointed as Biome Women.
This body is composed of representatives from Brazil’s six biomes: Amazon, Cerrado, Caatinga, Atlantic Forest, Pampa, and Pantanal.
Main responsibilities:
Term of service:
Each Biome Woman has a four-year mandate, with the possibility of renewal for an additional four years, according to the decision of the Root Women.
The Earth Women form our deliberative body.
How do we recognize an Indigenous Earth Woman?
Earth Women are Indigenous women representing all regions of Brazil, elected by ANMIGA’s co-founders.
This body originated with the 20 women who participated in the first in-person gathering of the articulation, held in February 2022, in the Lagoa Encantada Indigenous Territory, the territory of the Jenipapo Kanindé people, in Ceará. This gathering marked the resumption of ANMIGA’s in-person activities after the critical period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was during this moment that we defined the first political and organizational guidelines of the network.
The inclusion of new members takes place through an assembly of the deliberative body itself.
Main responsibilities:
Deliberative meetings:
Decisions of this body may be made through in-person meetings, virtual meetings, or interactive consultations within ANMIGA’s official communication groups.
At ANMIGA, everything we do is born from listening and collective strength. We are not a vertical structure; we are a living network, always in motion, with decisions built from our territories, our experiences, and the paths we walk together.
We are organized through three main forms of action: deliberative, consultative, and executive. Each one plays an essential role in keeping our articulation strong, aligned with our roots, and guided by ancestry.
This is how we function: with our feet on the ground, active listening among ourselves, and the strength of collective decisions. We are many, but we walk as one network, guided by who we are: root, seed, biome, and Earth. Together. Alive.
The most important decisions of ANMIGA are made by the Earth Women, who are responsible for our deliberative body. They carry the responsibility of listening to all and defining the directions of our articulation. However, no decision is made alone. All deliberations emerge from dialogues with the Root Women, Seed Women, and Biome Women, who bring the voices of each territory to the center of the network.
Every two years, we hold the Indigenous Women’s March, a sacred moment of gathering, listening, collective construction of agendas, and definition of the paths we wish to follow. In addition to the March, our deliberations also take place through virtual meetings, assemblies, gatherings, and seminars — spaces that may be convened by either the Earth Women or the Executive Director, according to our political and collective needs.
The Root Women, Seed Women, and Biome Women form our consultative and guiding bodies. These women are connected to the ground of the territories, listening to grassroots communities, mobilizing knowledge and needs, and building proposals based on experiences across biomes and Indigenous villages. They are the ones who nourish ANMIGA’s decision-making spaces with their analyses and proposals.
Nothing is decided without dialogue. Nothing is built without embracing what comes from the Earth.
For everything we decide to take shape in the world, we also have an executive body: the Executive Board. It is composed of an Executive Director, appointed by the Earth Women, and up to seven coordinators with national and international responsibilities.
Our Executive Board is responsible for transforming decisions into actions: coordinating areas of work, supporting the team, ensuring the implementation of projects and mobilizations, managing hiring processes, and responding to urgent matters, always in accordance with our Internal Regulations and ANMIGA’s Charter of Principles.
Currently, the Executive Board is organized into the following areas:
The IGA (Institute of Ancestral Guardians) is ANMIGA’s legal entity. Formalized in 2024, it is a non-profit civil institute that legally represents our articulation. Its creation strengthens our administrative autonomy, allowing us to move forward with greater structure and security in our management processes and advocacy efforts.
Since we began organizing ourselves, even before having our own legal entity, we have relied on the support of partners such as the Shirley Krenak Institute (ISDK), which stood alongside us in project administration and in making ANMIGA’s first actions possible. This support was essential for the network to flourish even before it had its own institutional structure.
Today, with IGA, we are advancing toward consolidating our internal management capacity in alignment with our principles. The institute exists to provide legal and administrative support to ANMIGA, sustaining the implementation of our projects, actions in the territories, and our political presence in decision-making spaces. It is another tool in service of the struggle of Indigenous women, created by us and for us.
