The Núcleo de Cultura Indígena – NCI is a civil society organization founded by indigenous people from various ethnic groups and established in 1986. For a few years the NCI had an office in São Paulo and regional branches in the Northeast, Midwest and North. The Center is currently based in Resplendor, Minas Gerais.
It was created to give formal legal standing to the work carried out by representatives of the Union of Indigenous Nations – UNI. UNI came to exist and strengthened itself as an organic movement, without ever being legally registered. The central government sees Brazil as a single nation and does not recognize indigenous peoples’ right to their own independent territoriality, identity and social and political organization.
Up until the 1988 Constitution, indigenous peoples were considered to be relatively incapable before the law, just like children people with disabilities, requiring the protection of the government agency, SPI – Indian Protection Service, until 1967, and later Funai – National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples. Without the right to organize, to move freely within the country, to basic rights such as speaking their original language, access to specialized health and education, and control over their land.
The Union of Indigenous Nations (UNI) represented a new way of organizing, more in line with the tradition of the indigenous peoples, taking into account the social and political organization of the villages, emerging at a still delicate time of democratic recovery in the country.
The leaders, then at the forefront of the movement, traveled all over the country, visiting every indigenous community and mobilizing these peoples in political and cultural gatherings for unity, for overcoming inter-ethnic conflicts, for guaranteeing basic rights for these peoples.
The importance of this movement reached beyond the country’s borders. Indigenous organizations from around the world have been allies, partners and interlocutors in the process of affirming indigenous peoples in Brazil.
Governments and international institutions have also recognized the importance of UNI, the do Núcleo de Cultura Indígena and indigenous members of the movement, awarding them important prizes for their work in defense of indigenous rights and the whole planet.
The work of the Nucleus of Indigenous Culture has kept pace with political and social changes over the last 40 years, altering courses of action, alliances and organizational strategies in order to continue defending indigenous rights.
