Glicéria Tupinambá

Glicéria Tupinambá, also known as Célia Tupinambá, is from the Serra do Padeiro village, located in the Tupinambá Indigenous Land of Olivença, in the south of the state of Bahia. She participates intensely in the political and religious life of the Tupinambá, getting involved especially in issues related to education, the productive organization of the village, social services, and women’s rights.

She was a teacher at the State Indigenous School Tupinambá of Serra do Padeiro. She concluded the Intercultural Indigenous Graduation in the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Bahia (IFBA) and is doing her master’s degree in PPGAS – post-graduate program in Social Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ. She was president of the Association of Tupinambá Indians of Serra do Padeiro, being responsible for the approval and management of projects aimed at strengthening the village.

She worked in the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of the Northeast, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo – APOINME and was a member of the National Commission of Indigenist Policy (CNPI). In addition, she represents her people at the United Nations Organization for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

She directed, in 2015, the documentary “Voice of Indigenous Women”, which brings together testimonials of indigenous women in Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and Alagoas. In 2010, after a hearing in Brasília, in which she denounced the violent actions of the Federal Police against her people, she was arrested along with her baby, an episode that provoked vehement criticism from entities in Brazil and abroad. From then on she was assisted by the Protection Program for Human Rights Defenders of the Presidency of the Republic – a program dismantled by the Bolsonaro government.

In 2021, Célia was the curator of the exhibition Kwá yapé turusú yuriri assojaba tupinambá | This is the great return of the tupinambá mantle, at Funarte Brasília. More recently, she won the 10th edition of the ZUM/IMS Photography Grant with the project We are birds that walk. The work, made in dialogue with Mariana Lacerda and Patrícia Cornils, is part of the exhibition Entre nós: dez anos de Bolsa ZUM/IMS. She was the winner of the 10th edition of the ZUM/IMS Photography Grant with the project We are birds that walk, by Célia Tupinambá. The work, made in dialogue with Mariana Lacerda and Patrícia Cornils, is part of the exhibition Entre nós: dez anos de Bolsa ZUM/IMS, with works by artists and collectives awarded the grant by the Moreira Salles Institute over the ten years of ZUM magazine’s existence.