We are all connected with Nature | Nixiwaka Yawanawá | TEDxHackney

Nixiwaka Yawanawa is from Brazil. His village is in the state of Acre, in the western Brazilian Amazon. The name Yawanawá translates as "The People of the Wild Boar." Nixiwaka share with us his fight to preserve his indigenous culture through Survival International for whom he worked for two years. "This world is a beautiful place to live in, (and) each one of us on earth has a responsibility to take care of it." Nixiwaka calls us to protect the rainforest and its people and invite us to discover more about them and their powerful medicinal plants by visiting them in the rainforest.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Hello everyone!

(Audience) Hi!

Everyone is good?
(Audience) Yes.

Sorry, I am not very used
to speak with a microphone.

I hope it will be okay.

My name is Nixiwaka.

I come from the rainforest
in Amazon, Brazil.

I have been living here
for four years now.

When I came here,
I didn't know any English.

I didn't know nothing, actually.

And the weather was crazy for me,

(Laughter)

especially the weather.

But it was okay afterwards.

If I walk in the street with just clothes

and my face not painted
or not with my headdress,

people think that I come
from Peru, Bolivia, Mexico.

But yes, I come from the Yawanawa tribe
in the Amazon rainforest.

I will just put my headdress on.

It's much better for me.

(Cat call whistle)

(Laughter)

Thanks.

Yes!

I feel more comfortable.

(Laughter)

I really feel more comfortable.

I would like to say just some few words
in my language, if it is okay.

" Mon sharai?"

"Mon sharai?" means "How are you,
how is it going?"

"Nixiwaka ki.

Yawanava ehuhu.

Matu uwi yuwa."

I just said that "My name is Nixiwaka.
I come from the Yawanawa tribe

and I'm here to visit you,
to see you.

I would like to talk
a little bit about Nature,

and how Nature is so important

for indigenous people
especially tribespeople,

but also for everyone in this world.

If we think really deep,

I think everyone will feel something:

where you came from

and what this world looks like now.

Many things have changed
all over the world.

But for tribespeople like me,

it didn't change anything.

In some countries,
even in Brazil in South America,

some tribes are different.

They know the language, for example
Portuguese or any other language.

Some of them lost their language.

They lost their culture, their tradition.

But still, many live
in the same way that they used to.

I just want to talk a little bit
about my people.

When we made the first contact
with the white people,

it was my great-grandfather.

He was eleven years old.

He first saw the white man
and he just ran away.

The white man didn't see him.

And he told our family
that he saw some people,

strange people, different people,

with clothes, with beard,

with sunglasses or glasses.

And he didn't understand
where these people came from.

He said, "How we will talk with them
if we don't know the language?"

So he decided to kill a deer.

He went to those white people
and just throw the deer.

And the white people
gave him a small knife.

It was a positive contact,
it was a good contact,

because usually when
the first contact happened

with indigenous people,

battles happened, lots of killing,

and in most of South America,
it happened like that.

We are glad that it didn't happen,
no fight, nothing.

The only problem was
the different kind of diseases.

Our shamans for example,
our people start to get ill

and they didn't understand
what was this illness.

The shaman did everything
to heal but he couldn't heal

and all the shamans there were dying

because we, indigenous people,
had no immunity

for simple diseases like flu, cold.

It was all new for us.

But we survived.

And we learned Portuguese.

I was very young when I went to a city,

a very small town and I learned Portuguese.

That's why I speak in English.

If you go to Brazil in the Amazon,

I am quite sure you would not
find someone, an Indian person,

that can speak English
to speak with you.

And I am really glad to be here,

to be able to speak about
indigenous people culture,

about our tradition.

We still have our knowledge
about medicinal plants.

Brazil, for example, is the home
of more than 80 different tribes

that are still isolated.

They don't even have any contact
with indigenous people like mine.

The reason I came to London

was to learn English first of all,

and to be able to speak for them,

because they have decided
to not make contact with the white

or the western world.

We see that when we come
close to them, they run away,

or they want to shoot us
with their arrows and bows.

And we are telling
the government to protect them,

to protect their territories.

The first thought I have was to adapt here
because the weather is really cold

and it was very different for me.

Then, I went to a school
and studied for one year.

Last year, I found this organization
called Survival International.

They work with different
tribespeople around the world,

especially in South America.

And I said yes when I had
this opportunity to work with them

to raise awareness for tribespeople,

for the protection of tribespeople,

especially as well in Africa,
South Africa and Botswana.

It has been really great for me.

it has been a really good experience.

I'm still learning the language,

so excuse me for my English.

We still practice our culture.

This is something
that I would like to say,

and talk about how we are all
connected with Nature.

We receive many people from Europe.

They want to visit my tribe, for example,

to see how we're still living.

And we have this week
of traditional parties

and we have our sacred rituals.

It is the rituals that we have
with our medicinal plants

that we use to communicate
with the spirits of the forest.

We believe that in the forest,
there are a lot of spirits.

When a shaman, for example,
goes to take a plant in a forest,

he asks the plant, "I will take you,
I will use you to heal someone,"

because if he just say nothing,
the plant will have no effect.

The plant has an effect
when the shaman asks for that:

"I am going to use you to heal my people."

Right now,

our forest has been disappearing

because of many
big projects of the government,

for example mining and logging.

It is really hard for us
to protect our forest.

Because we think that
the forest is not just important for us,

for my people, but for other people
in Brazil, in South America,

and especially to keep
this balance in the world.

Because I think everyone needs
to have the forest protected

because it cleans the air,
it's a pure air for us to breathe.

I was really sad when I found out
about the climate change.

The climate change is, we think, because
there's something wrong with the world.

Why is the climate changing?

Why do lots of disasters
happen in the world?

We don't understand why.

Our shaman says that it's because
something is wrong with the world.

He used to say that it is the lack of love
and understanding of each other.

Sometimes money is good, for many things,

but it can be really bad as well.

We think that the problem is that people

just want more, and more, and more
and there is no end.

So the world is like
there is no more control.

What people need is more love
and to understand each other.

We think that it is going
to be a solution:

to see yourself and to see other people,

to see how they live and how
we communicate with Nature

and how we keep Nature alive.

That's why I am here to talk with people.

I am actually giving some talks
at school for children,

and I tell them how
indigenous people live in the forest.

I speak about how we hunt,

how we fish, how we build our houses,

and they all are interested.

They say they get really impressed

when they see someone
coming from the Amazon

and talk with them about how
indigenous people live,

and they ask a lot of questions.

It is very interesting for them
because here, for example,

there is no indigenous people.

We, indigenous people, think

that we know how
to keep this culture alive

and how we can share with the white,

with the outside world.

They don't know the community,
for example, the public.

It was something that I thought
really interesting.

It was that people from here,
from out of Brazil

most of them I can say

really care about
the preservation of Nature

and the preservation of different
cultures and indigenous people.

That is the reason why I would like
to stay a little bit more.

I want to go back to my tribe and live
there the way I think is best for me.

But before I would like to say to people

that we are still there,
we still live in the same way,

and our door is always open
to welcome people

and let them see how we live.

Right now, because of the public,
the international community,

the Brazilian government is taking action

to preserve the indigenous territory,

especially those that are still
isolated from the outside.

We have some campaigns
for some tribes in Brazil.

For example "Guarani" is the name

of the biggest population
of indigenous people in Brazil,

more than 50,000.

They have a big problem

because their land is now replaced
by sugar cane and soybean plantations

and most of people in the community
are living by the roads.

They don't have access
to any support from the government.

Malnutrition, even suicide happen a lot

because they don't have
their land any more.

If indigenous people lose their land,

it means they lose everything especially
their lives, starting with the culture.

We are saying to the Brazilian government

that we want to live in our lands,

we want to have our forest protected,

because forest means life,
forest means our body,

forest means our everything

and we live because we have the forest.

It's more kind of an awareness.

What I am doing here is saying
that we are in this situation

but we also have this knowledge
to share with the western world.

And if you would like to know more,
know what are tribespeople,

how they live, who are they,

there are many questions
that people would like to know ...

I would like to tell you that if you
would like to know more

about the tribespeople,
how they live,

the importance of the rainforest for them,

you may visit our website
"survivalinternational.org."

They work with indigenous people.

For example, in my tribe,
every year in October

we have this festival,
a traditional festival.

It lasts for five days.

We have lots of different kinds of games,

and during the night,
we practice our sacred rituals.

We have this special
drink called "Ayahuasca."

It is a very strong drink.

(Laughter)

a very strong drink!

You can see what is life,

starting by yourself, how you are,

see your spirit and what you are
doing here in this world.

And you can see that through
this ritual if you believe in this.

I believe that indigenous people
have a lot to share

with the outside world.

Our doors are always open
to welcome everyone

who want to visit and know
more about tribespeople.

I would like to sing a small song.

It means,

when you visit someone,

it is like your are going

and you tell that there is this happiness.

It means "happiness."

(Singing in Yawanawa language)
"Ganaro cheretete.

Ganaro cheretete.

Ato noma noma.

Ato noma noma.

Mahe mahe mahe.

Noma mahe mahe.

Noma mahe."

This is when we are visiting someone,

we are visiting our family, friends
and houses and all places,

we always sing this song
to say goodbye or this kind of expression.

Thank you very much
for receiving me TEDxHackney.

I am really glad to be here, thank you.

(Applause)