(The Guardian) Indigenous women call out violence against their land and their bodies
Indigenous women from the Amazon have just held a press conference calling out the violence committed against their land and their bodies, as well as the failure of the Cop summit to take their ideas and solutions seriously.
“In both cases we are talking about consent and violations of our right to decide,” said Helena Gualinga (Kichwa), an Indigenous youth climate leader from Sarayaku, Ecuador. “We are the main custodians of the untouched forests. If women are protected, we will also protect the territories and ecosystems essential to climate mitigation.”
Also from Ecuador, Patricia Gualinga (Kichwa), from the Amazon Women in Defense of the Jungle, warned investors in and extractive industries to stay away. “It will be bad for business. If you come in, we will stop you because we are in a struggle for our lives ... but we come here with ideas and proposals that can contribute to global solutions, you just have to listen and respect the knowledge and include us in the decision making, otherwise this summit will fail.”
Today is water and gender day at Cop27, and women across the world are on the frontline protecting water (and land) from exploitation by extractive industries like monocropping, mines and oil, which guzzle scarce supplies and contaminate groundwater sources. But thinking about water and land protection separately – as government policies and NGO initiatives often do – can create imbalances in complex interdependent ecosystems, said Sônia Bone Guajajara, Indigenous leader from Brazil who was recently elected to the National Congress. “We are the ones protecting biodiversity, so we need Indigenous women in decision making spaces yet here at Cop our participation is still undermined.”
The press conference ended with a rallying cry: “Not one more drop of Indigenous blood. The Amazon is not for sale.”
