When my attention returned to the Acoustic Burro, curiosity and serendipity sent me stories of courageous role models creating the healthy home we all need. The Global Landscapes Forum introduced me to Célia Xakriabá, now the first indigenous Federal Deputy in Brazilian Congress from the state of Minas Gerais. Since 2023, she’s chaired a parliamentary commission defending Indigenous people’s rights and the planet from which she sees no possible disconnection. “We are the environment.” She first testified in front of Brazil’s Congress as a 13-year-old. More recently, she helped to create the “Reforesting Minds” movement based on Indigenous ancestry and wisdom which advocates for a change in consciousness among the global public about planetary preservation.
From articles about Célia’s work cofounding ANMIGA, a group of warrior women across many of Brazil’s 305 different peoples, I also discovered Puyr Tembé. She presented at the 2024 Bioneers Conference in Berkeley, talking about her role as the first Secretary of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Pará. She and forest guardian Marçal Guajajara are lead protagonists in a new documentary film called We Are Guardians: A journey of hope in the midst of crisis. Puyr has left her home and family behind in their indigenous lands to work in the busy metropolis of Belém because she knows that protecting vital Amazonian lands is of existential importance for all of us.
Belém, Brazil was also the location for this year’s annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference (COP 30). Marina Silva, Brazil’s environment minister, spoke to The Guardian ahead of the conference, urging producer nations and consumer nations to create a phaseout map together. “To be fair is to be fair to everyone, but the essential, primordial justice is not to be unfair to the planet, because it is our home.” Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in an unusual move, stepped into the fray himself to help work through geopolitical tensions. “We haven’t found another place to live,” he reminded delegates, but resistance persisted into the final declaration. After the usual intense lobbying from oil/coal/gas producing countries and corporations, negotiations ended once again without mentioning fossil fuels. Outside the framework that requires full consensus, however, overwhelming public demonstrations from indigenous communities inspired 80 nations to recognize the need to work in other cracks of opportunity to create a pathway for abandoning fossil fuels. Stay posted for real change after their first gathering, next April.
Wishing everyone a solstice of contemplative beauty and bold earthly brilliance. The wheel of the year keeps turning, and positive change is real.
