Tashka Yawanawá (Sharp exhale)
(Sharp exhale)
(Singing)
(Singing ends)
(Sharp exhale)
I'm Tashka Yawanawá.
I'm here with my wife.
I come from the Yawanawá community,
which is located in the state of Acre
in the Brazilian Amazon.
Takes some days to arrive here.
I just did the song
to reconnect us to the spirit of the rainforest.
From immemorial time,
my people live in the Yawanawá territory.
We see this holistic way
of how nature is.
Nature, for us, belongs to the whole of humanity.
And we Yawanawá see
the environment, the forest, as alive.
But everything is always a challenge.
Mostly now, because I think many of you know
that the Amazon now is on fire.
That affects all of us.
Destroying the Amazon does not affect just the indigenous people,
because we are all connected.
Whatever we do in my community, if I burn everything,
it's going to affect it here,
when the snow comes here at Christmas.
If you pollute here,
it's going to affect it when the rain comes to my country.
I used to say we all belong to the global village.
I used to say, Amazon belongs to humanity,
and also that humanity needs to take care as the indigenous do in the world.
And for this reason,
today is a time to wake, unite us.
We Yawanawá are doing our part.
We take care of Mother Earth.
And now, I will give to my wife.
Laura Yawanawá: 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 and 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 Yawanawá, 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 hectares 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 ... for 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 action now.
TY: (Sharp exhale)
(Applause)