They are also called Cara-Preta (Black Face). From the 18th Century until 1960 they were simply named Canoeiro (Canoeman). In the 19th Century they were also referred to as Carijó. The name Avá-Canoeiro appeared in the beginning of the 1970s, during the contact with the group that lives on the region of the Araguaia River.

The Avá-Canoeiro speak a language of the Tupi-Guarani family, of the Tupi branch. There are different dialects between the groups of the region of the Araguaia River and those of the Tocantins River.

There are currently two groups of Avá-Canoeiro living in permanent contact with the national society. In the State of Goiás, they are established in the Avá-Canoeiro Indigenous Land, in the municipalities of Minaçu and Colinas do Sul. In the State of Tocantins, they live in the Boto Velho, or Inãwebohona, village, in the Inãwebohona Indigenous Land; in the Canoanã Indigenous Post and in the Araguaia Park Indigenous Land, in the municipalities of Formoso do Araguaia, Lagoa da Confusão, Sandolândia and Pium.

In addition to those groups of the Tocantins and Araguaia rivers, there are two others that have not yet been contacted by Funai. One of them probably moves about the mountainous region of the headwaters of the rivers that form the Upper Tocantins River, in the State of Goiás, and the other probably lives in the Northern part of Bananal Island, inside the Araguaia Park Indigenous Land, in the State of Tocantins.