The ceremony took place at the Planalto Palace, the seat of the executive branch here, after being postponed because of Sunday’s terrorist attacks.
The building was among those demolished by radical supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
In addition to the government stronghold, the terrorists also attacked the National Congress and the Federal Court of Justice.
As a symbolic gesture, the national anthem was sung in Portuguese and Indigenous before the start of the celebration. There was also a Batuque presentation by the group Afoxé Ogum Pá.
“Our property here today, mine and Anielle Franco’s, is the most legitimate symbol of this black and indigenous secular resistance in Brazil,” Guajajara said after taking office.
He noted that “we are facing a humanitarian crisis. For this reason, the creation of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples of the World signals the Brazilian state’s commitment to emergency and climate justice.
In addition to inclusion, he pointed to “recognition and initiation of historical reparations, invisibility and denial of rights”.
He denounced that “the secular invisibility that influences and directly influences the state’s public policies is the result of racism, inequality and a low-representation democracy”.
He recalled that the original communities “in the cities, in the villages, in the forests” practice the most diverse professions that one can imagine. We live in the same time and space as each of you, we are contemporaries of this present and we will build the Brazil of the future because the future of the planet is ancient,” he remarked.
For her part, Franco, the sister of councilwoman Marielle Franco, who was murdered four years ago in a central Rio de Janeiro neighborhood, warned that “fascism, like racism, is an evil that must be fought in our society”.
He pointed out that “since March 14, 2018, the day Marielle was removed from my family and from Brazilian society, I have dedicated every minute of my life to the fight for justice, the defense of memory, the multiplication of heritage and dedicated to watering my sister’s seeds”, human rights defender.
He called not to ignore or underestimate the fact that race and ethnicity are determinants of inequality of opportunity in Brazil in all walks of life.
He warned that “Black people are underrepresented in spaces of power and instead we are the ones most at ease in spaces of stigma and vulnerability.”
rgh/ocs