Dear Human Beings,
I am the Amazon forest, reaching out for your attention today. Please listen to my heartfelt appeal, as your fate is intertwined with mine. I urge you to uphold the sacredness of our connection, as you consider my 10 requests:
1. Restore Balance: Bring back balance by embracing respect, reciprocity, reverence and responsibility towards the infinite dance of life on the finite planet we are both part of.
2. Recognize Me as a Living Being: not only the lung of the planet, but also a kidney, a heart, a womb, the bone marrow, a mother, deserving protection, not a resource, a possession or a commodity.
3. Breathe Life into Ancestral Languages: Revive the melodies of native tongues to find the rhythm of regeneration.
4. Uphold Indigenous Peoples’ Sovereignty: Stand together in affirming Indigenous rights to safeguard human and non-human life in the lands and waters of ancestral territories.
5. Seek Role Models of Respect and Responsibility: Support and connect with those who are risking their lives to protect me.
6. Reject Illusions, Embrace Truth: Reject false promises and solutions and the structures that are placing us both on the path of extinction.
7. Respect the Language of Consent: Uphold the sanctity of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, as woven in the threads of ILO Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration of the rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) – extend respect for the sanctity of consent to non-human entities.
8. Infuse Wisdom Into All Your Interactions: Embed my wisdom into your social, economic, and ecological interactions to secure the future of generations to come.
9. Champion the Rights of Earth: Speak for my rights and for the rights of all ecosystems.
10. Embrace Regeneration: Rise against the tide of unsustainable growth and consumption, work towards regenerative systems that can protect my existence and that of all forms of life.
In the name of our entangled lives and fates, please listen to my plea. With ancient roots grounding me, and branches reaching for the sky, I implore you to pause, to listen and to act — to safeguard your own future, which is interwoven with mine.
The Amazon Rainforest
Source: Federation of the Huni Kui Indigenous People of Acre, Brazil.
September 5: Amazon Forest Day
The Brazilian congress and Supreme Court are voting to remove laws that cancel Indigenous rights in order to open the Amazon and other sensitive areas to mining, logging, cattle-ranching and farming to meet the demands of high-income countries. Since most ecologically protected areas are held by Indigenous peoples, the bills and case being voted propose to take away Indigenous land titles and to cancel Indigenous rights to be able to open areas that are currently protected to business.
On September 5, Amazon Forest Day, the Federation of the Huni Kui People invites you to engage in at least one of the actions below:
1. Learn more about the issue. The following resources are good places to start:
- Read the text “Will Brazil’s Supreme Court deal a blow to Amazon protection efforts?“
- Read the text “UN expert concerned about legal doctrine threatening Indigenous Peoples’
- Read the text “If we lose the Amazon we lose our future“.
- Watch “The refugee Jatoba tree” short video
2. Read the book “A Forest Called Amazon” with your family and consider signing up to the Pledge of Generations at the end of the book.
3. Start a diet for the Amazon where you will abstain from eating products associated with the demands for beef, soy and corn that drive deforestation and Indigenous rights violations in the region. You can do it for a day or for a week. Remember to check the labels of processed goods for any presence of derivatives stemming from beef, soy, and corn.
4. Leave a message of support to the delegation of the Federation of the Huni Kui People of Acre who are protesting in Brasilia until September 20, 2023. You can also donate directly towards their food and transportation here.
Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures 