With the Fire of Ancestors: Indigenous Women Warriors at U.N. Biodiversity Convention

Indigenous Women from Brazil: Calls for Action to Protect Biodiversity, Indigenous Rights and Climate

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Oct. 24, 2024

CALI, Colombia -- Indigenous women leaders from Brazil defending their rivers, forests and people, spoke with courage and the fire of their ancestors at the United Nations Biodiversity Convention today.

"We sing because when we sing together, we don't feel that we are alone," said Deputy Célia Xakriabá, Federal Deputy in Brazilian Congress, and co-founder of the National Articulation of Indigenous Women Warriors of Ancestrality.

"All of our lands, all of our rivers are being murdered," Xakriaba said during the press conference today of Women's Earth and Climate Action Network.

Now in Brazil they are trying to make it legal to mine our lands, and deforest our lands, but it is not legal, she said. All of this is making Indigenous women sick, and we need to protect Indigenous women. Seventy percent of our women have given up having children. This is why women must be protected.

"When we kill our women, we are also killing the Earth."

"Our water is calling for our protection," said Concita Sõpré, co-founder of ANMIGA and co-founder of the Federation of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Pará (FEPIPA) in Brazil.

"The women think of our present, our past and our futures, and we think about our children, grandchildren and great-children, and realize there is a predator."

"We want to raise healthy children, but we are losing our children from the mercury in the water."

"We are losing our children from the burning that is happening in our forests."

"We are here to call for help."

Jozileia Kaingang (Kaingang), Executive Director, National Association of Indigenous Women's Warriors of Ancestry (ANMIGA), Brazil. (Screenshot Censored News)

Jozileia Kaingang, executive director of ANMIGA, said Indigenous women in Brazil are on the frontline of environmental and human rights, protecting the territory and plants and everything on the Earth, based on their ancestry.

"We women see the impacts of climate change with the loss of our biodiversity with extreme droughts all over the country."

"We feel the floods in our territory and we are specifically the most affected by climate change."

Pointing out that Indigenous Peoples are responsible for the balance of nature, she said, "We are coming to a time when there is no coming back."

She said Indigenous women want to live on their land with respect for their diversity, languages and culture.

"There are three-hundred-and-five Indigenous Peoples, 274 Indigenous languages, and we still have Indigenous Peoples that are isolated. We need to understand that Brazil needs to respect our Indigenous laws."

Indigenous Peoples are suffering from the invasion of their territories, she said. Women need to be protected and safe while defending the environment.

ANMIGA (Association of Ancestral Indigenous Women Warriors) in center, representing the six ecosystems of Brazil (Screenshot Censored News)

Amazon Rights Declaration Launched

This week, GARN, Indigenous leaders, and Amazon defenders launched the Amazon Rights Declaration (la Declaración de los Derechos de la Amazonía). WECAN serves on the Executive Committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature.

"The Declaration was presented to Colombia’s Minister of Environment and COP16 President, Susana Muhamad. Together, we are calling for the inclusion of the Rights of the Amazon in high-level COP16 discussions!" WECAN said.

View the declaration here: https://www.garn.org/derechos-de-la-amazonia-2/

On Tuesday, October 22, WECAN held a press conference titled “Rights of Nature: A Systemic Solution to Protect Biodiversity.”

During the event, WECAN Executive Director and Founder, Osprey Orielle Lake, shared a new initiative “A Global Initiative for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature: Pathways to Establish a Mechanism for Endorsement and Adoption by World Governments.”

Read the report here: https://www.wecaninternational.org/ron-declaration

WECAN is also engaged in the Antarctic Rights working group, and we joined the GARN event, “Ecosystems as Legal Entities: Exploring the Rights of Nature for Antarctica.”

This session explored the necessity to implement the Rights of Nature in Antarctica as a systemic solution to protecting the Antarctic. Learn more here: https://antarcticrights.org/

Today's speakers:
Jozileia Kaingang (Kaingang), Executive Director, National Association of Indigenous Women's Warriors of Ancestry (ANMIGA), Brazil
🔸 Concita Sõpré, Co-founder, National Association of Indigenous Women's Warriors of Ancestry (ANMIGA), and Co-founder of the Federation of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Pará (FEPIPA), Brazil
🔸 Deputy Célia Xakriabá (Xakriabá), Federal Deputy in Brazilian Congress in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and co-founder of the National Articulation of Indigenous Women Warriors of Ancestrality (ANMIGA), Brazil
🔸 Osprey Orielle Lake, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) Founder and Executive Director, Turtle Island/USA

Watch today's press conference on UN WebTV
https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1p/k1ppsniwxf


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