July 6, 2021 • 11 mins
For today's episode, we focus on Sonia Guajajara, a fierce advocate and fighter for the Amazon and the indigenous peoples that live there.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
I've never told you production of I Heart Radio. All right,
and you have a question for you. Okay, when I
say Amazon rainforest, what's the first thing you think? Uh, snakes? Snakes?
(00:29):
Really yeah, like big snakes. That is not what I saw.
But okay, what why snakes? I don't know. I guess
I've seen a lot of horror movies. There's a lot
of snakes in the Amazon. I feel like there's there's
a computer game that I really liked where you were
in the Amazon you learned about like it was an
educational game where you learned about like the canopy and
(00:50):
the creatures in there. So I am seeing that, but
I can't remember the name of the game, so it's
like really useless. But like I see this beautiful, beautiful
rainforest scene and then a snake. Well, yes, I do
see creatures when I think of it as well. And
I also think of the fact that there's so many
vast amounts of things within the Amazon that we don't
(01:13):
quite know about. We know a lot of specialists go
in there. We know like people come in to study things.
We also know that it's a big deal about the
fact that people are trying to ruin it by taking apart,
taking all the resources and pretty much depleting the land,
as well as taking land away from those who have
been there for all of their lives, generations and generations.
(01:33):
That's what I think of. Of course, I also think
of Fernal a little bit, even though Fungal is an
imaginary place, right, I believe so. I recently rewatched for doing.
As I said on this very podcast, it does not
hold up. Although Tim Curry singing is great, if it
takes place in the Amazon, then it is. And this
is what surprised now in a very americanized version because
(01:54):
like the main character, Zack is like clearly a surfer
nineties surfer guy, right right, uh, of course, of course,
which I guess he could be working into Amazon. It
just doesn't seem too likely to me, but I guess
he could. I guess to me the corporations are probably
American exactly. You're right, Maybe I read it all, maybe
(02:15):
I read well. We are talking a little bit about
the Amazon rainforest and the Amazon's because we're actually going
to talk about an activist who has been a big
part of trying to fight for the lands as well
as for the people's uh And we're gonna started off
with a bang July because it is July one, just
in case people wanted to know. And we are talking
(02:37):
about the fierce fighter and environmental activists who was born
in the arab Boya indigenous land in Marino, a village
in the Amazon Forest. So Saunia is a well known
activist within the environmental world. So if you're aware of
any of that, you could probably already know her name.
And she's been a fierce advocate in fighting for the
preservation of the Amazon rainforest in the lands around it,
(03:00):
well as fighting for the right and respect of the
indigenous communities in Brazil, including fighting to ensure that the
uncontacted peoples in the Amazons are left alone and are
able to continue their way of life. And she has
been awarded and recognized for her work quote internationally in
defense of the Amazon Forest ecosystems, by diversity and indigenous populations.
(03:21):
The Guage genre people are one of the larger groups
of the indigenous people, with about twenty five thousand present
and eleven indigenous lands, and probably because of this, Sonia
is one of the more targeted persons for her advocacy,
she has become a huge fighter against the government as
they continue to push development of these areas. Brazilian Ministry
of Institutional Security Office has tried to criminalize her work
(03:44):
by stating that she and her organization have committed crimes
by reporting environmental crimes that the government was responsible for. Right,
I think that's so telling. They're getting mad because they're
being told on essentially, so that like you're criminalizing our work.
Of course, this is the same conversation we had with
Representative dev Holland and while they were afraid to go
(04:05):
ahead and confirm her because she fights for the land
and for the communities instead of the industries and the
big corporations. And of course, when we know about politics,
they need that money and they're gonna get it the
way they want to. So definitely kind of in that
same lines. And by the way, Sonia was involved in
politics as well. Get into that more UH in a bit,
But speaking of her organization, UH. Sonia is the leader
(04:28):
and coordinator of the a p I B or the
Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, which represents over
three hundred indigenous ethnic groups in Brazil. According to its
site A p I B is a reference of Brazil's
Indigenous movement that was born with the purpose of strengthening
the indigenous people's unity and the articulation among the different
regions and indigenous organizations in the country, unify the indigenous people,
(04:51):
struggle the list of claims and demands in the Indigenous
movement politics, and mobilize the indigenous peoples and organizations of
the country against the as an attacks to the Indigenous
rights and their mission statement is Indigenous Rights promotion and defense,
parting from the Indigenous organizations and people's articulation and unity
from the most distinct regions of the country. Guasa Gara
(05:14):
is someone who has been considered herself an activist since
her beginning. She said, I was born an activist. I
spent my whole life fighting against anonymity, against indigenous people's invisibility.
I always wanted to find a path, a way to
bring the history and a way of life of the
Indigenous people to light for society as a whole. Um
and getting her Masters in Culture and Society from the
(05:35):
Institute of Humanities from the Federal University of Bahia and
degrees in nursing and a graduate from special education from
the Marienno State University. It's not hard to see that
she has a desire for helping and fighting for the
rights of others, and she's not afraid to speak out.
As lands spews over. The force of the Amazon continues,
(05:55):
Guajajahara has been a fierce advocate in protecting the lands
against far a destruction through mining and development of power planets.
She stated, quote, the Amazon is one of the most
important force in the world and the indigenous people who
live in it have raised important issues in the public sphere,
such as the protection of the immense biodiversity, the protection
of the isolated people who live there, and the importance
(06:17):
of maintaining the forest standing for the climactic balance of
the planet. And she continues on saying, the indigenous peoples
of Brazil are not only in the Amazons, They're all
over the Brazilian territory and other important biomes that are
also being deforested, burned, and degraded by agrab business and
mining companies. The key issue of Brazilian indigenous peoples to
the world is that large corporations would stop investing in
(06:40):
companies that bet on a development model that presupposes our
death and the destruction of our territories. Her work has
made her a public figure within the movement, including working
with R and B singer Oisia Keys to send a
message about the need for protecting the Amazon rainforest. But
she's also a political figurehead in Brazil. Like we mentioned earlier,
she was on the ticket in as a vice president
(07:02):
with the Labor Leader candidate, which made her the first
Indigenous person to run for a federal executive office in Brazil,
and as the pandemic has hit the country hard, it's
no surprise that she has been a giant voice in
advocating for the health and lives of the indigenous community
in Brazil. It was noted that the mortality rate for
those indigenous communities was one hundred and fifty percent higher
(07:24):
than that of the other communities, which showed how much
more this community was at risk in comparison to the
rest of Brazil. There were many factors to this, including
the social and economic conditions, as well as the fact
that they had difficulty getting access to healthcare, which is
a common issue all across the world for indigenous communities.
(07:44):
The a p I b under Guaja published a documentary
series called Morocca Indigenous Emergency, which accused the Brazilian government
of neglect and not protecting the indigenous community, going as
severe as calling it a government genocide, which was altered
in the Brazilian government then subpoena ng Guasa to question
(08:05):
and interrogate her for this content, but she did not
back down. She said in a tweet, the persecution by
this government is unacceptable and absurd. They will not shut
us up. Right when Guashara was under question investigation, the
a p i B stated in support quote and yet
another act of political persecution and an authoritarianism. President Bolson
(08:26):
NAO's government is trying to criminalize the indigenous movement and
its leaders. And there are many others who continue to
support her as she fights for equity for her community
and for her people. And just recently, actually the Brazilian
courts suspended this investigation, and one person said that the
court document stated the investigation was a quote clear attempt
to suppress the work being done by a p i B.
(08:47):
So there was definitely a lot going on, and it's
not the first time they try to use criminal charges
against her for speaking out against the president or the
government in general. And it's no surprise that she is
a woman who has been honored and continue news to
be honored. Some of the awards and accolades she has
collected over the years include Medal of Honor of the
Government of the State of Marino in the eighteenth of January,
(09:09):
Medal by the Center of the Promotion of Citizenship and
Human Rights Defenders Fred Packet Award, and her organization recently
was awarded for the liter earlier Moffett Human Rights Award
for standing up the corporations and oppressive government. There's so
many more, and she and her organization continue to be
recognized and continue to fight no matter the barriers, and
(09:29):
obviously are not afraid to stand up to any type
of oppression and are not willing to back down to
try to bring equality again, an equity to the indigenous community.
And yeah, we need to come back. And I think
any and I have talked about this before, how this
is impacted the indigenous community all around the world. It's
not just in Brazil, It's definitely in the US, it's
(09:50):
definitely in Mexico, it's definitely in Guatemala, in Canada where
they just cannot access the health care they needed. And honestly,
COVID just kind of brought it to light a little
more because of the amount of death and percentage of
death that went up. But it's been a thing and
it continues to be a thing after the fact. And
we saw that with vaccine access. We saw that with
any type of health care access, for any type of
(10:13):
elderly care. It continues to be an issue, um, and
we need to come back and address it because of
what we've seen, because that most oftentimes for the Indigenous community,
it's women who are coming out fighting hardcore to get access. Right. Yeah,
we definitely need to return to that topic and I'm
sure that we will in the meantime. Listeners, if you
(10:34):
would like to contact us, you can or emails Stuff
to be mom Stuff that I Hurt Media dot com.
You can finds on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcasts or
on Instagram and Stuff I Never Told to You thinks
It's always started. Super producer Christina, thank you and thanks
to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You. The
production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart
Radio is the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
I've never told you production of I Heart Radio. All right,
and you have a question for you. Okay, when I
say Amazon rainforest, what's the first thing you think? Uh, snakes? Snakes?
(00:29):
Really yeah, like big snakes. That is not what I saw.
But okay, what why snakes? I don't know. I guess
I've seen a lot of horror movies. There's a lot
of snakes in the Amazon. I feel like there's there's
a computer game that I really liked where you were
in the Amazon you learned about like it was an
educational game where you learned about like the canopy and
(00:50):
the creatures in there. So I am seeing that, but
I can't remember the name of the game, so it's
like really useless. But like I see this beautiful, beautiful
rainforest scene and then a snake. Well, yes, I do
see creatures when I think of it as well. And
I also think of the fact that there's so many
vast amounts of things within the Amazon that we don't
(01:13):
quite know about. We know a lot of specialists go
in there. We know like people come in to study things.
We also know that it's a big deal about the
fact that people are trying to ruin it by taking apart,
taking all the resources and pretty much depleting the land,
as well as taking land away from those who have
been there for all of their lives, generations and generations.
(01:33):
That's what I think of. Of course, I also think
of Fernal a little bit, even though Fungal is an
imaginary place, right, I believe so. I recently rewatched for doing.
As I said on this very podcast, it does not
hold up. Although Tim Curry singing is great, if it
takes place in the Amazon, then it is. And this
is what surprised now in a very americanized version because
(01:54):
like the main character, Zack is like clearly a surfer
nineties surfer guy, right right, uh, of course, of course,
which I guess he could be working into Amazon. It
just doesn't seem too likely to me, but I guess
he could. I guess to me the corporations are probably
American exactly. You're right, Maybe I read it all, maybe
(02:15):
I read well. We are talking a little bit about
the Amazon rainforest and the Amazon's because we're actually going
to talk about an activist who has been a big
part of trying to fight for the lands as well
as for the people's uh And we're gonna started off
with a bang July because it is July one, just
in case people wanted to know. And we are talking
(02:37):
about the fierce fighter and environmental activists who was born
in the arab Boya indigenous land in Marino, a village
in the Amazon Forest. So Saunia is a well known
activist within the environmental world. So if you're aware of
any of that, you could probably already know her name.
And she's been a fierce advocate in fighting for the
preservation of the Amazon rainforest in the lands around it,
(03:00):
well as fighting for the right and respect of the
indigenous communities in Brazil, including fighting to ensure that the
uncontacted peoples in the Amazons are left alone and are
able to continue their way of life. And she has
been awarded and recognized for her work quote internationally in
defense of the Amazon Forest ecosystems, by diversity and indigenous populations.
(03:21):
The Guage genre people are one of the larger groups
of the indigenous people, with about twenty five thousand present
and eleven indigenous lands, and probably because of this, Sonia
is one of the more targeted persons for her advocacy,
she has become a huge fighter against the government as
they continue to push development of these areas. Brazilian Ministry
of Institutional Security Office has tried to criminalize her work
(03:44):
by stating that she and her organization have committed crimes
by reporting environmental crimes that the government was responsible for. Right,
I think that's so telling. They're getting mad because they're
being told on essentially, so that like you're criminalizing our work.
Of course, this is the same conversation we had with
Representative dev Holland and while they were afraid to go
(04:05):
ahead and confirm her because she fights for the land
and for the communities instead of the industries and the
big corporations. And of course, when we know about politics,
they need that money and they're gonna get it the
way they want to. So definitely kind of in that
same lines. And by the way, Sonia was involved in
politics as well. Get into that more UH in a bit,
But speaking of her organization, UH. Sonia is the leader
(04:28):
and coordinator of the a p I B or the
Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, which represents over
three hundred indigenous ethnic groups in Brazil. According to its
site A p I B is a reference of Brazil's
Indigenous movement that was born with the purpose of strengthening
the indigenous people's unity and the articulation among the different
regions and indigenous organizations in the country, unify the indigenous people,
(04:51):
struggle the list of claims and demands in the Indigenous
movement politics, and mobilize the indigenous peoples and organizations of
the country against the as an attacks to the Indigenous
rights and their mission statement is Indigenous Rights promotion and defense,
parting from the Indigenous organizations and people's articulation and unity
from the most distinct regions of the country. Guasa Gara
(05:14):
is someone who has been considered herself an activist since
her beginning. She said, I was born an activist. I
spent my whole life fighting against anonymity, against indigenous people's invisibility.
I always wanted to find a path, a way to
bring the history and a way of life of the
Indigenous people to light for society as a whole. Um
and getting her Masters in Culture and Society from the
(05:35):
Institute of Humanities from the Federal University of Bahia and
degrees in nursing and a graduate from special education from
the Marienno State University. It's not hard to see that
she has a desire for helping and fighting for the
rights of others, and she's not afraid to speak out.
As lands spews over. The force of the Amazon continues,
(05:55):
Guajajahara has been a fierce advocate in protecting the lands
against far a destruction through mining and development of power planets.
She stated, quote, the Amazon is one of the most
important force in the world and the indigenous people who
live in it have raised important issues in the public sphere,
such as the protection of the immense biodiversity, the protection
of the isolated people who live there, and the importance
(06:17):
of maintaining the forest standing for the climactic balance of
the planet. And she continues on saying, the indigenous peoples
of Brazil are not only in the Amazons, They're all
over the Brazilian territory and other important biomes that are
also being deforested, burned, and degraded by agrab business and
mining companies. The key issue of Brazilian indigenous peoples to
the world is that large corporations would stop investing in
(06:40):
companies that bet on a development model that presupposes our
death and the destruction of our territories. Her work has
made her a public figure within the movement, including working
with R and B singer Oisia Keys to send a
message about the need for protecting the Amazon rainforest. But
she's also a political figurehead in Brazil. Like we mentioned earlier,
she was on the ticket in as a vice president
(07:02):
with the Labor Leader candidate, which made her the first
Indigenous person to run for a federal executive office in Brazil,
and as the pandemic has hit the country hard, it's
no surprise that she has been a giant voice in
advocating for the health and lives of the indigenous community
in Brazil. It was noted that the mortality rate for
those indigenous communities was one hundred and fifty percent higher
(07:24):
than that of the other communities, which showed how much
more this community was at risk in comparison to the
rest of Brazil. There were many factors to this, including
the social and economic conditions, as well as the fact
that they had difficulty getting access to healthcare, which is
a common issue all across the world for indigenous communities.
(07:44):
The a p I b under Guaja published a documentary
series called Morocca Indigenous Emergency, which accused the Brazilian government
of neglect and not protecting the indigenous community, going as
severe as calling it a government genocide, which was altered
in the Brazilian government then subpoena ng Guasa to question
(08:05):
and interrogate her for this content, but she did not
back down. She said in a tweet, the persecution by
this government is unacceptable and absurd. They will not shut
us up. Right when Guashara was under question investigation, the
a p i B stated in support quote and yet
another act of political persecution and an authoritarianism. President Bolson
(08:26):
NAO's government is trying to criminalize the indigenous movement and
its leaders. And there are many others who continue to
support her as she fights for equity for her community
and for her people. And just recently, actually the Brazilian
courts suspended this investigation, and one person said that the
court document stated the investigation was a quote clear attempt
to suppress the work being done by a p i B.
(08:47):
So there was definitely a lot going on, and it's
not the first time they try to use criminal charges
against her for speaking out against the president or the
government in general. And it's no surprise that she is
a woman who has been honored and continue news to
be honored. Some of the awards and accolades she has
collected over the years include Medal of Honor of the
Government of the State of Marino in the eighteenth of January,
(09:09):
Medal by the Center of the Promotion of Citizenship and
Human Rights Defenders Fred Packet Award, and her organization recently
was awarded for the liter earlier Moffett Human Rights Award
for standing up the corporations and oppressive government. There's so
many more, and she and her organization continue to be
recognized and continue to fight no matter the barriers, and
(09:29):
obviously are not afraid to stand up to any type
of oppression and are not willing to back down to
try to bring equality again, an equity to the indigenous community.
And yeah, we need to come back. And I think
any and I have talked about this before, how this
is impacted the indigenous community all around the world. It's
not just in Brazil, It's definitely in the US, it's
(09:50):
definitely in Mexico, it's definitely in Guatemala, in Canada where
they just cannot access the health care they needed. And honestly,
COVID just kind of brought it to light a little
more because of the amount of death and percentage of
death that went up. But it's been a thing and
it continues to be a thing after the fact. And
we saw that with vaccine access. We saw that with
any type of health care access, for any type of
(10:13):
elderly care. It continues to be an issue, um, and
we need to come back and address it because of
what we've seen, because that most oftentimes for the Indigenous community,
it's women who are coming out fighting hardcore to get access. Right. Yeah,
we definitely need to return to that topic and I'm
sure that we will in the meantime. Listeners, if you
(10:34):
would like to contact us, you can or emails Stuff
to be mom Stuff that I Hurt Media dot com.
You can finds on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcasts or
on Instagram and Stuff I Never Told to You thinks
It's always started. Super producer Christina, thank you and thanks
to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You. The
production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart
Radio is the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
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