Speech at COP26 My name is Txai Suruí. I am only 24 years old, but my people have lived in the Amazon rainforest for at least 6,000 years. My father, the great chief Almir Suruí, taught me that we must listen to the stars, the moon, the wind, the animals, and the trees. Today the…
FROM THE EDITORS: The first vote of the Supreme Court in Brasilia by Minister Edson Fachin against the “marco temporal” this September 9th was celebrated with joyful shouting by indigenous groups and more than 5 thousand women mobilized in the capital. Fachin rejected the premise that the Constitution of 1988 could define territorial rights that…
The significance of democratic elections in 2020 for indigenous peoples go beyond electoral results. Wavering between the need for sovereignty/self-determination and democratic participation, indigenous people are finding themselves in places of power denied to them historically. After hundreds of years of noncitizenry, indigenous plurinational states are now shaping democracy. Below we summarize some of the…
FROM THE EDITORS: The indigenous leader of the Kayapó people, “Paulinho” Bepkororoti Payakan, who led the fight against the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, fell victim to COVID yesterday. At just 67 years of age, he died in a hospital in the State of Pará, after a tireless struggle was able to include the right of…
Slowly we perceive―like the rising of the river when it comes down from the mountain―that the rain at the top of the summit hasn’t ceded, and that we must prepare for the sudden flow. After the initial storm, like the soft roots that creep between the stones until they are broken, ideas, actions, and the…
Musical expressions are liberating and help build resilience. Some musical expressions have managed to unleash social change and others, to shape identities and resistance, but above all music is contributing significantly to keeping Native languages and expressions alive. Indigenous languages are living, active languages that grow and are renewed, for example, when young people take…
In Wawi Indigenous Land (MT), Khĩsêtjê sing and dance until dawn to celebrate 20 years of their traditional territory retaking. Published originally on their blog by Instituto Socioambiental (ISA). Author: Isabel Harari, journalist. Photos: Christian Braga / ISA; Videos: Kamikia Kisedje y Fred Mauro / ISA. The Instituto Socieambiental is an organization that was established…
SOURCE: Astrolábio Magazine nº 21 year II set. 2017, English translation: Awasqa Indigenous literature is marked by a narrative tradition with strong traces of orality, amplified by representation systems through graphics, which constitute another narrative, which differs from the strict concept of the printed word. Indigenous graphics are stories and information narratives with their language…