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 climate is warming, the animals are disappearing, the rivers are dying, and our plants don’t flower like they did before. The Earth is speaking. She is telling us that we don’t have any more time.
A friend asked me: will we continue to think that today’s injuries can be resolved with ointments and pain killers, even though we know that tomorrow our wound will only be deeper?
We need to take another path with bold and global changes.
It’s not 2030 or 2050. It’s now!
While you are closing your eyes to reality, the land defender Ari Uru-I-Wau-Wau, my friend since I was a kid, was murdered for protecting the forest.
Indigenous peoples are at the frontline of the climate emergency, and we must be at the center of the decisions that take place here. we have ideas to postpone the end of the world.
Let us stop empty lies and fake promises; let us end the pollution of hollow words, and let us fight for a livable future and present.
It is always necessary to believe that dreaming is possible.
May our utopia be a future on Earth.
Thank you.
