THE PERFORMATIVITY OF LANGUAGE INTERSECTED IN RACE AND INDIGENOUS IDENTITY: FROM ‘INDIAN DAY’ TO ‘INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S DAY’ IN BRAZIL

Abstract

This study aimed to reflect on the change from "Indian Day" to "Indigenous Peoples Day" and its impact on the reconfiguration of indigenous identity, especially in the statement by the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, for the Day of Indigenous Peoples, on April 19, 2024, and in the urgent declaration "Land, Time and Struggle" of the Acampamento Terra Livre, held between April 22 and 26, 2024, organized by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB). The discussions and analyses were based on the concepts of language performativity intersected in race and identity, from the perspective of Critical Applied Linguistics (CAL), examining how language and indigenous identity are (re)constructed and (re)negotiated. We observed that the categories of analysis in indigenous discourse often intersect, addressing issues of race, identity, territoriality, politics and ancestral knowledge in a complementary manner, both in emerging and non-emerging issues.