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“It was here that I was born,” pointed out Raoni, the greatest Indigenous Chief in Brazil and one of the most recognized global leaders. Looking down from the window of the plane where we were, I saw farms in the outskirts of what is now the Capoto/Jarina Indigenous Land, where he lives in a village with about 400 people, on the banks of the Xingu River, in the Amazon rainforest.
Raoni was born in the 1930s — the exact date is unknown. It is impossible to measure what he has already seen and experienced in his approximately 90 years of life. He met with Marshal Rondon, a notorious explorer and defender of Indigenous People from the early 20th century and former Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek. From writers the Villas-Bôas brothers he heard that he should fight for all Indigenous Peoples, not just his own. And so he did. Symbol of struggle and Indigenous resistance, Raoni is recognized among his peers, respected by all Peoples, revered by non-Indigenous around the world — celebrities, government officials, academics.
Today, one of Raoni’s concerns is illegal gold mining in the Kayapó territory. That’s why we invited him to fly over the region and see the size of the damage from the above. Raoni accepted the invitation from Greenpeace Brasil and we took off on the morning of July 25th, together with Kayapó leaders Doto Takak-Ire and Poy Kayapó.
The Kayapó, alongside the Yanomami and the Munduruku, are the three Indigenous Peoples most affected by mining in the Amazon: more than 90% of the problem is concentrated in these territories. Illegal gold mining is often underestimated: despite not causing large deforested areas, it kills rivers, contaminates everything and everyone around it and condemns the affected area to a death that is difficult to reverse. In the Kayapó land, for example, more than 750 kilometers of rivers are contaminated or have been damaged by the illegal activity.
“This destruction is forever”, says Raoni, with sadness on his face, as we fly through a huge mining area, located in the southeast of the Kayapó Indigenous Land. “I’m not happy at all,” he added angrily. The scenery is shocking: after a chain of mountains, the horizon reveals a huge brown area, divided in small pools with mining waste. There is no life.
From above we can see the machinery. I counted three excavators, and saw other hidden machines. The Greenpeace Brasil team that had flown over the same area in February of this year said that illegal mining seems to have been reduced. Despite sounding like good news, it hides a migration: mining is heading towards the north of the territory, and there, the activity is in full swing.
Raoni, Doto and Poy — leader of the Gorotire village, right next to the mine — were silent. From time to time, in the Kayapó language, they would point to a newly opened area, which they did not know existed. The river that runs alongside the village is brown. It is this water that the Kayapó who live there use for drinking, cooking, and bathing. I ask if there are any studies of mercury contamination among his people and Poy tells me that there aren’t yet.
When we left the mine on the way to Raoni’s village, I asked him how we can support him. With the help of Doto, who translated Raoni’s words throughout the flight, I heard the answer: “We need everyone united against this destruction. We need the government’s commitment, and concrete actions to support our people”, he said.
Before we landed, I asked Raoni if he believes we will be able to fight gold mining and value an economy based on the standing forest. Very firmly, he took my arm and said “yes, I believe and I know.”
We need to overcome the current economic model and replace it with an alternative that is able to coexist with the forest.Above all, we need a model that is capable of decentralizing the wealth that still generates and perpetuates the poverty on which mining and other destructive activities feed off of.
I was going to end this article by saying how important it is for our future, for the future of the planet, and for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, that the Calling of Cacique Raoni reaches the heart of each one of us. But, when I reconnect to the internet and to the news that accumulates at a speed that we are not even able to process (extreme temperatures on land and sea, fires, melting glaciers, severe droughts, rains and storms), it becomes clear that our challenge is in the present.
There, on that plane with Cacique Raoni at my side, flying over the world of the Kayapó — who also face the contradictions presented by the economy of destruction: on the one hand, easy and fast money, on the other, the need for a new system that overcomes the already weak notion of “progress” that part of the elite of the world insists on — I understood that there is no other possible destination, and that what remains for us is to keep looking for paths (and shortcuts!) to reach it.
At over 90 years old, Raoni teaches us that time is now, and that there is no alternative but to remain firm, calm and strong. And to never give up the fight.
Carolina Pasquali is the Executive Director of Greenpeace Brazil
