In this article I present a brief comparison of the current situation of indigenous societies in relation to indigenist legislations in Brazil, Australia, and Canada, at a time in which indigenous political movements are growing internationally and policies of multiculturalism are being implanted by national states. To understand, historically, the processes of emergence of indigenous political movements in these countries, it is necessary to look at the histories of interethnic contact , the construction of “aboriginality” in the context of each national state, and the public policies within their historical contexts. Ideas about race and miscegenation were very different in the historical formation of these three national states. The article examines briefly the themes of race, culture and indigenist legislation.
