Although not the only tribe affected with what’s happening in Brazil right now, this is the specific tribe that Avatar was based off of. I’ve only ever seen James Cameron’s documentary on this tribe, but watching this 15-minute video absolutely made my blood boil and by the time it was over, my eyes were stinging with tears.
I am absolutely disgusted and appalled at what Brazilian leadership is doing and the specific things the man said in this video made me want to gag. I am at a complete loss for words.
I have no idea where to ind the full 60-minute episode, but this 15 minutes is more than enough to get the point across.
Trigger warning for pretty much everything pertaining to the destruction of nature and human life.
When learning about stuff like this, it’s easy to want to scream, yell, and curse Brazilian leadership. It’s easy to want to ask how we can donate and write to our own leadership to possibly step in and do something, but what will it do? What will it do when you have environmentalist leaders who aren’t even environmentalist, who’ve never been to the Amazon before, and who is on record saying that “Indians are indolent”?
What will it do when the new environmentalist leadership is filled with nothing but retired police and military officers? What will it do when you have a Brazilian president who is also on record saying that Indians are less than human? (Direct quotes from this article here: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/brazils-bolsonaro-creates-amazon-counsil-and-environmental-police-force/ )
2021 update on the Amazon: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/amazon-forest-loss-hits-second-highest-level-since-2008/
My heart just feels so heavy. And to know that something similar is going on in my own country with oil pipeline 3 being built to run through the land and treaty territory of the Anishinaabe people. I don’t know what to do or what will help. We are calling on our own president and state officials, and we hear absolutely nothing in return.
So, I post this to get the word out to anyone who might care. Write to your leaders. Repost and spread the voices of the indigenous people strong enough to speak out, brave enough to risk arrest during protests, and those who are sharing their own experiences. Even if you are feeling hopeless like I am feeling right now, do what you can and never back down. Indigenous people deserve to live and they deserve to keep their lands and their homes.
For anyone that is not familiar with Line 3, here is the website and a video breaking down what’s happening in simpler terms:
Website: https://www.stopline3.org/#intro