Throughout this week, IBGE census takers will be visiting native indian communities in Parati (RJ), on the Bananal Island (TO) and in São Felix do Xingu (PA). Next week other groups will be visited, among them the Waimiri Atroari, who live in the borderline which separates the states of Roraima and Amazonas. This tribe is taking part in the census process for the first time.

This 2007 edition of IBGE Censuses will visit all the indian tribes existing in the municipalities with up to 170 inhabitants, in order to update population data. By the time of the last Demographic Census, in 2000, about 735 thousand indians lived in Brazil, representing about 0.4% of the Brazilian population. According to FUNAI (Nation Indian Foundation) they were spread among 225 different ethnicities.

On Tuesday (07/17), the census takers will be in the indian villages of Parati (RJ), in the southern part of Rio de Janeiro. This community, formed by 180 indians of the Guarani tribe, is spread by three close-by areas: Rio Pequeno, Maranguá and Parati-mirim.  They are located in the shore, in the Atlantic Forest, with wooden houses, in which the inhabitants still maintain their traditions.

In Amazonas, the state with the bigger number of indians in Brazil, visits to the Wimiri Atroari communities will star next week. It is a community with about 1,200 members and only recently contacted by FUNAI to take part in the censuses.

In Tocantins, this week, a group from IBGE will interview the indians who live on the Bananal Island. It is the biggest river island in the world, with 20 thousand km ² and inhabited by about 100 thousand Indians from the Karajá and Javaé tribes.

In Pará, the census takers will be in the municipality of São Felix do Xingu, in the southern part of the state, where there are over 50 indian villages. Planes were rented to take the interviewers to the most faraway places, including some which are in the borderline with Guyana. The census takers may stay in these areas for several days, only returning to their agencies after having finished the data collection.  

In Bahia, in which there are over 64 thousand indians, in communities in which the census is almost over. The municipality of Banzaê received thousands of Indians who left the most faraway places and live in urban areas today. In other states, such as   Roraima, Mato Grosso do Sul and Bahia, there are also visits to Indian tribes. 

For further information and interviews, contact the IBGE Communication Department by telephone 55 - (21) 2142-4506/4651/0986/0985, fax - (21) 2142-0941, or e-mail: comunica@ibge.gov.br