Indigenous Activists to COP30: "We Will Fight to the Death"

"Belem, Brazil -A street mural half a block long shows a grim-faced Amazonian warrior, shirtless beneath a headdress of gold and turquoise, aiming a bow and arrow at a distant target. In a science-fiction twist, the warrior wears goggle sunglasses whose lenses flash the white electronic eyes of a video game commando. Behind him, red letters exclaim, "O Futuro E' Ancestral" - "The Future Is Ancestral.""

"The warrior was standing guard as thousands of people marched through the streets of Belem, Brazil, on November 15 to demand that governments gathered at the COP30 UN climate summit across town deliver real solutions to the accelerating climate crisis. Dozens of Tupi people, the main Indigenous nation in northeastern Brazil, shook maracas and danced while fiercely chanting their determination to protect their land."

"Across the world, 80 to 89 percent of people want their governments to take stronger climate action. The marchers in Belem, who included members of left-of-center political parties and trade unions in Brazil and climate activists from around the world, put a human face to this climate super-majority. "Climate Emergency: The Answer Is Us" and "No More Fossil Fuels: The Future Begins Now" read the signs carried by Carolina Garcia and Javier Guillot of Colombia, activists with the Mundo Comun citizens initiative."

Thousands of people marched through Belém on November 15 to demand that governments attending COP30 deliver concrete solutions to the accelerating climate crisis. Indigenous groups, including dozens of Tupi people and the Association of Forest Protectors, led chants, danced, and carried banners declaring that climate justice and Indigenous rights are inseparable and that the forest is essential to the future. Activists from left-of-center parties, trade unions, and international climate groups joined with signs calling for an end to fossil fuels and urgent climate action. A massive handmade snake symbol linked to Amazonian sacred traditions floated above the procession.

Read at The Nation