Invisible movement, silent extermination: cultural violence against indigenous peoples in Brazilian journalistic coverage

This article discusses how certain frameworks present in Brazilian journalistic coverage can contribute to the legitimization of violence against indigenous peoples, based on Johan Galtung's tripartite model (direct, structural and cultural violence). It is argued that the media, by repeatedly framing indigenous peoples in the place of the passive victim or the threatening invader, operates a cultural violence that naturalizes and justifies the direct and structural violence historically imposed on these peoples. The text articulates historical and demographic data on the indigenous population in Brazil, political discourses of delegitimization, cases of journalistic coverage, such as the report on the indigenous protest in Brasília in 2017 and the documentary Martírio (2017), and recent episodes, between 2022 and 2024, which show the persistence of these frameworks. It is concluded that the media framing of indigenous peoples as predictable victims or as threats to order prevents their constitution as political subjects of speech, reinforcing cycles of invisibility.