We deeply regret the untimely death of Cris Baré, an indigenous lawyer who was at the forefront of the fight for indigenous rights in Brazilian courts. Born in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, on the Upper Rio Negro in Amazonas, Cris was involved in indigenous struggles from a very young age.
With a law degree from the Amazonas State University (UEA), she was a member of the tenacious legal team of the Coordination of Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab) and was the founder of Podáali, the fund set up by indigenous people to finance indigenous projects in the Amazon.
Cris played a leading role during the Covid-19 pandemic, denouncing the needs of indigenous peoples in the face of the health crisis. Representing Coiab, she spoke out before the Federal Supreme Court against the Marco Temporal, the greatest threat to indigenous rights in Brazil, during the trial that ruled it unconstitutional in September last year.
In this moment of grief, we offer our solidarity to her family, friends and fellow members of Coiab, wishing that Cris' path to ancestry will be yet another light in the struggle of Brazil's indigenous peoples.
* Marco Temporal refers to the legal theory according to which the original/indigenous peoples can only demand the demarcation of lands where they were already living on October 5, 1988, the date Brazil’s present Federal Constitution was enacted.
