First Indigenous Health Forum: Construction and spreading of the Indigenous Health Agenda in the 1990s.

Abstract

The Indigenous Health Conferences (IHC) have been the political spaces for expressing and consolidating ideas and proposals. However, in 1993, the "First Indigenous Health Forum" was held a few months before the second IHC. With a historical approach, this paper aimed to understand the organization and impacts of this Forum in the construction of Brazilian Indigenous Health policies during the 1990s. We analyzed an unpublished set of documents organized as a Dossier by Dr. István Varga and deposited in the University of São Paulo's library. We discuss that a strong connection with the First Indigenous Health Forum was established between the first and second IHC. The argumentative structures and proposals formulated in the First Indigenous Health Forum were reinforced during the subsequent events culminating in the Second IHC.