Filed under: Action, Climate Change, Indigenous, Quebec
A critical report back from Ottawa on recent actions in solidarity with the struggle of indigenous people in the Amazon.
After the fires in the Amazon Rainforest received widespread attention in late August, September 5th was a global day of action in solidarity with a call from Indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon, promoted globally by Amazon Watch and Extinction Rebellion; in Brazil it was the annual Amazon Day, Dia da Amazônia.
Below is a statement from organizers of an action in Ottawa, written in response to media request, followed by some other points of reference.
“This action was global solidarity with the peoples of the Amazon rainforest, the beings of the Amazon rainforest, land defenders, and the work to stop environmental destruction. The destructive violence to our home (the environment) is a mutual product of governments and corporations around the world. The Bolsonaro government of Brazil is particularly harmful to both the environment and human beings.It was the APIB – Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil [Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil] who initially called for this solidarity.This action was an opportunity for people locally to meet and converse about these issues and about local organizing, what are people doing here and what else could be done, what possibilities there are.Not a lot of people came for the late afternoon action at the Brazil embassy. It was last-minute notice, less than 48 hours, but also important to note is that while 70 people RSVPed on Facebook, only 5 people took the opportunity to invite friends on Facebook.We need to ask: What things do people choose to support, and in what ways? And how quickly do people lose attention of important things because of pop culture?What do we actually need in terms of communication networks, if we want a healthy place to live? Many of the people in the Strathcona Park (near the embassy) we approached with flyers after the protest, were in support of the action but hadn’t heard of it in advance.The protest reminds us, if the Amazon rainforest are a major part of the lungs of the planet, then the planet is not separate places but all one thing. How do we see ourselves in relation to this, and these problems that are getting worse?We could say, it reminds us we have individual responsibility to work collectively, and it reminds us of our relations.”
- Explainer video from Sabrina Fernandes https://youtu.be/TfiutlJ7uWc
- Toolkit from Amazon Watch https://tinyurl.com/awtools
- Toolkit from Survival International https://t.co/PaegaAVur5
- Declaration of Civil Society Organizations on the Crisis of Deforestation and Burning in the Brazilian Amazon
https://www.internationalrivers.org/sites/default/files/attached-files/cso_declaration_amazonia_g7_aug2019-engfinal.pdf - [In Portuguese from APIB]
Nota de repúdio da APIB – Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil
http://apib.info/2019/08/27/nota-de-repudio-da-apib-articulacao-dos-povos-indigenas-do-brasil/ - [In Spanish from COICA]
Pueblos Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica nos declaramos en Emergencia Ambiental y Humanitaria
http://coica.org.ec/pueblos-indigenas-de-la-cuenca-amazonica-nos-declaramos-en-emergencia-ambiental-y-humanitaria/
(COICA consists of Indigenous peoples organizations from all nine countries with borders containing the Amazon rainforest)
What are effective resistances to the policies that are killing the Amazon and, by extension, the Indigenous peoples there? Resistances that span continents, that are longer term than social media attention spans, that involve more people, and that evade the implicit control-and-coopt mechanisms of the non-profit industrial complex?
- What You Need To Know About The Upcoming Climate Strikes: A Discussion
https://itsgoingdown.org/what-to-know-climate-strike/ - Call To Participate And Intervene Within The Upcoming Climate Strike Actions Happening Across The World From The Week Of September 20th – 27th
https://itsgoingdown.org/a-call-for-radical-interventions-in-the-global-climate-strike/