Glicéria, better known as Célia Tupinambá, is from the Serra do Padeiro village, located in the Tupinambá de Olivença Indigenous Land, in the south of the state of Bahia, in Northeast Brazil. She is 39 years old and participates intensely in the political and religious life of the Tupinambá, getting involved, above all, in issues related to education, the productive organization of the village, social services and women’s rights.
She is currently a teacher at the Tupinambá Indigenous school Serra do Padeiro (CEITSP) and is studying the Indigenous Intercultural Degree at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Bahia (IFBA). She was also president of the Associação dos Indios Tupinambá da Serra do Padeiro (AITSP), where she was responsible for approving and managing projects for strengthening the village. She worked in the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of the Northeast, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo (Apoinme) and was a member of the National Commission for Indigenous Policy (CNPI). In addition, she represents her people with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). In 2015, she made the documentary “Voz Das Mulheres Indígenas” (17min.) Watch below:
Since then, she has continued to work in the audiovisual area, making videos together with the young group of the community. In 2010, after a court hearing in Brasília, the capital of Brazil, in which she denounced violent actions by the Federal Police against her people, she was arrested, along with her baby, in an episode that aroused vehement criticism from entities in Brazil and abroad. Since then, she has been assisted by the Human Rights Defenders Protection Program of the Human Rights Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic.
