Diversity has been a trademark since the first days of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's third term as President of Brazil. Eleven of the 37 ministries are now headed by women. Although still far from gender parity, this is the highest number of women in the upper echelons of the Federal Government in history.

Two of them will head environmental ministries with high international projection: Marina Silva, in the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, and Sônia Guajajara, in the newly created Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. In the wake of Guajajara's arrival in the government, the indigenous peoples gained an unprecedented protagonism in the formation of the new administration that begun on January 1, 2023. Joênia Wapichana was nominated to lead the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai) and Ricardo Weibe Tapeba will command the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health.

Born in the state of Acre, Marina Silva adds to the government the international prestige resulting from her fight for the environmental cause, which started when she was a teenager and led her to the command of the Ministry of the Environment in 2003, when Lula was president of Brazil for the first time. The historian and environmentalist remained in office until 2008, when she broke ties with the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers Party).

Upon being sworn in, Silva stated that Brazil will no longer be a pariah in the environmental agenda around the world, and that she will work to reduce the numbers of fires and deforestation in the Amazon, which have shown increasing trends in recent years.

Watch Marina Silva's speech at the swearing-in ceremony (Portuguese only)

Like Silva, Sônia Guajajara was elected as congresswoman for São Paulo. Considered one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, she was born in the state of Maranhão and was the coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil.

The minister is from the Guajajara/Tentehar people, who live in the forests of the Araribóia Indigenous Land, and, in recent years, has taken several complaints of human rights violations on indigenous lands to the United Nations and the European Parliament, besides having her voice frequently amplified on social networks with the help of world-renowned artists such as the actor Leonardo DiCaprio and the singer Alicia Keys.

The new president of Funai is a native of the state of Roraima and, upon being sworn in, said that the agency was scrapped and dismantled by the previous administration and that, therefore, it is time to reverse all the damage quickly. Joênia Wapichana is the first indigenous woman to become president of Funai in its 55-year history. She also was the first indigenous woman to become a lawyer in Brazil and played a decisive role in the demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Reserve.

Finally, Ricardo Weibe Tapeba is also a lawyer and was a councilman in the municipality of Caucaia, in Ceará. The new secretary's mission will be to execute the National Policy for the Health Care of Indigenous Peoples, in addition to managing more than 22,000 health professionals connected to the agency, 52% of which are indigenous.