The Research Centre for Indigenous Ethnology was founded in 1995 and is based at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH) of the University of Campinas (Unicamp). It was established on the initiative of professors from the Department of Anthropology, with the support of colleagues from the Institute of Arts (IA) and the Institute of Language Studies (IEL). Its proposal was originally conceived by professors Vanessa Lea, Robin Wright, John Monteiro, Marcio Silva, Regina Müller, Tania Alkmin e Wilmar D'Angelis. Its first main objectives were to provide a reference point for researchers from various institutes and departments at Unicamp working on topics related to Indigenous peoples, as well as to mitigate the lack of articulation between different levels of research and teaching in the field of ethnology within the IFCH itself. To this end, it planned the creation of regular events, such as the Permanent Seminar, and special events, as well as editorial initiatives. Over time, CPEI expanded its interdisciplinary profile, encompassing the participation of researchers from History, Demography, Education, Physical Education, Medicine, among other areas of knowledge.

From 2012, we started a set of initiatives aimed at ensuring the expansion of the Centre's material and institutional resources, creating new collective spaces for debate, study and research, broadening the dialogue of Amerindian themes with issues related to other traditional populations, as well as improving the accessibility of our collections. Internal research lines were also defined, bringing together professors and students around shared problems and cutting-edge topics in studies on indigenous peoples and other traditional populations.

CPEI's activities are concentrated in 3 main areas: 1) promoting the integration between teaching and research at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, fostering an interdisciplinary research profile; 2) developing outreach projects aimed at indigenous peoples and other traditional populations, articulating research and social action; and 3) acting publicly in defence of the rights of indigenous peoples and other traditional populations.

Further details about the creation of CPEI and its history are available in the article Memórias da fundação do Centro de Pesquisa em Etnologia Indígena (CPEI), by Regina Müller, Robin Wright, Vanessa Lea and Wilmar D'Angelis, published by Maloca - Revista de Estudos Indígenas.

CPEI's visual identity was created in 2024 by the Indigenous illustrator and designer Nena Puri, as part of the Centre's 30th-anniversary celebrations. The palette combines the colours of tabatinga (white clay), açaí (an Amazonian fruit), and earthy tones, in reference to the centrality of the land for Indigenous peoples, their ways of life and their struggles. The logo was built with reference to Indigenous graphic designs of the Puri people, the main one being that of the red-footed tortoise shell. As is well known, in many Indigenous narrative traditions the red-footed tortoise is used to signify strength, resistance and longevity - characteristics that say a lot about the history of Indigenous peoples in Brazil and that we wish to cultivate at CPEI and at Unicamp.