Tashka Yawanawa (Sharp exhale)

(Sharp exhale)

(Sharp exhale)

(Sharp exhale)

(Singing)

(Singing ends)

(Sharp exhale)

I'm Tashka Yawanawa.

I'm here with my wife.

I come from the Yawanawa community,

which is located in the state of Acre

In the Brazil Amazon.

Takes some days to arrive here.

I just did the song

to reconnect us
with the spirit of rainforest.

From [unclear] time,

my people live in the Yawanawa territory.

We see this holistic way

of how the nature is.

The nature, for us,
belongs to the whole humanity.

And we, Yawanawa, see

the environment, the forest, as alive.

But everything is always a challenge.

Mostly now, because I think
many of you know

that Amazon now is under fire.

That affects all of us.

Destroying Amazon is not affecting
just the indigenous people.

Because we are all connected.

Whatever we do in my community,
if I burn everything,

we are affected here

when the snow comes here at Christmas.

If you pollute here,

we are affected when the rain
comes to my country.

I used to say we all belong
to global village.

I used to say, Amazon
belongs to the humanity.

And so the humanity needs to take care
as indigenous do in the world.

And for this reason,

today is a time to wake up, unite us.

We, Yawanawa, are doing our part.

We take care about Mother Earth.

And now I give it to my wife.

Laura Yawanawa: We are here
with our hearts crying.

I am smiling here, but my heart is crying,

because a lot of our forests
are being destroyed.

And I just want to give you a message.

This crisis is giving
humanity two options.

One option is you help

to end, to destroy, exterminate

all our forests and all
our cultures that go with it.

Or we transform this crisis
into an opportunity

to empower indigenous people,

to support indigenous people,

and to save the rainforest
and their cultures.

And how can you do that?

We have, the Yawanawa,
we created a life plan,

which is our strategic planning

that tells us the steps
of how we want to secure our territory.

We take care of about
200,000 hectare of rainforest.

But now it's under threat.

So this life plan shows the steps
for us to secure our land,

our biodiversity,

our culture, our education.

I invite you all,

I invite all companies,

I invite all governments,
all civil society,

to listen to indigenous peoples,

to go back to our roots.

We have been here for many,
many centuries.

And we have been trying
to scream to the world

that we need to protect
our territory, our nature,

and you never listen to us.

Never.

I guess this crisis is teaching humanity

that now you need to listen to us,

and to support indigenous
peoples directly.

To support their initiatives directly.

So that's the message
that I would love to leave to you.

That indigenous people have the answer

and if you want to save the Amazon,

we have to take the action now.

TY: (Sharp exhale)

(Applause)