You all will do anything to not give us our land back huh

The court’s decision will weigh heavily as Brazil’s Senate considers legislation to limit new Indigenous reservations.

Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Indigenous rights in a landmark case that weighed the constitutionality of establishing a time limit for making claims to ancestral territory.

Nine of the court’s 11 justices voted to strike down what is called the “marco temporal” or “time frame” argument, a legal policy supported by businesses and farmers seeking to use Indigenous land.

The “marco temporal” would have forced Indigenous groups to prove they were on the land in question in 1988, when Brazil’s current constitution was ratified, in order to assert a right to the territory.

But that argument faced widespread criticism from Indigenous peoples, human rights organisations and even experts at the United Nations, who argued it could “legalise theft of Indigenous lands”.

Thursday’s Supreme Court decision was heralded as a victory for those groups, some of which took to social media to celebrate.