Indigenous activist’s message to world leaders

Brut America

“We are not owners of the forests, we are its caretakers.”   Brut followed Indigenous climate activist Alice Pataxó at the COP26 summit as she carried the message of her people to world leaders…

Transcript

00:00Hi Brute, I'm Alice Patachó, I'm an indigenous leader and climate activist.

00:05I'm here at COP26 to be part of the discussions and bring the voice and indigenous representativeness to this space as well.

00:12Let's go?

00:16Please join me in welcoming Alice Patachó. Thank you.

00:23We indigenous peoples are guardians of the forest

00:27and we defend more than 80% of the world's biodiversity, according to the UN.

00:34I'm going to stay here, it's warmer inside.

00:39I and other indigenous people are in a delegation representing the Brazilian people.

00:45We are here to talk about our history and what has been happening politically in our country

00:51and to ask for international help for the environment in Brazil, to save the Amazon rainforest and our biomes.

00:57My people come from Bahia, from the far south. We are the first contact people with colonization.

01:03And we already feel a lot of the impacts of climate in our region.

01:07The advance of the sea level is clear and has destroyed our houses a lot, changed our traditional diet.

01:13And these are very serious risks when we live in a community that for many, many years, for centuries

01:19has a custom, a life tradition.

01:22The fires in our forests are increasingly present, the advance of illegal deforestation.

01:28And this is a very difficult concern for us, because our territory needs to be protected.

01:40Hello, I didn't have time to welcome you, I'm sorry.

01:44Be a leader.

01:47Bonjour.

01:49Hi, how are you?

01:52We are happy to see you.

01:55Nice to meet you.

01:57Nice to meet you too.

01:59I know a lot about your work. I'm very happy to meet you here.

02:03Nice to meet you. You look beautiful.

02:07You look so beautiful and strong. You are very strong.

02:11A real lesson for us.

02:14Sit down, sit down.

02:16Talking about...

02:18If the indigenous people of Brazil had more access to this issue of climate education

02:23at the beginning of their adolescence, at the beginning of their adult life, mainly.

02:28I speak for myself, because when I was younger, I didn't know what was happening out here.

02:33These days, someone told me, the forest owners, and I even posted this,

02:40look, we are not forest owners, we are its guardians.

02:43And this is the difference, because the forest never had an owner,

02:47no one ever held it, there is no fence around here.

03:01Hey guys, how are you? Good morning.

03:04How are you?

03:06Good morning.

03:09I think I'm going to record some stories here from the exhibition,

03:14and then we can go down there.

03:17We just left a meeting with the mayor of Paris,

03:21to receive, to propose issues about climate education in other places,

03:26to prepare us to really participate better in these international relations,

03:32and bring the indigenous people together in these constructions.

03:38I started working with the internet not long ago,

03:41and I started talking there about the things that worried me a lot about my people.

03:45It is very important our effective participation in this moment,

03:48because we are talking about a construction that does not exist without indigenous peoples.

03:53We need a lot of help and climate justice,

03:56so it is very important that people are aware of what is happening in Brazil,

04:00and that they can help in some way.

04:02That we leave here with all these concepts ready,

04:05but that we start executing them as soon as possible.

04:08We have little time to change the reality of the world,

04:11and it is very necessary that this starts today,

04:13and that we do not wait any longer,

04:15because we have already waited a long time, and the planet is on fire.

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