This article was translated for LAB by Chloe Budd. You can read the original (in Spanish) here.
Main image: Raya, an old Nahua. More than half of his village was destroyed after the land opened to oil exploration. Image: Survival International
They are the defenders of nature, natural
territories and areas that, with the pretext of the collapse of...
This article originally appeared in Portuguese in the Portuguese newspaper O Público, on 2 April, here.
The version published by Amazon Latitude, here, was translated for LAB by Theodora Bradford
I will never forget the conversation I had two days ago with
Rafael, a fisherman from the banks of the River Solimões, in the small and
isolated town of Tabatinga, Brazil. His words...
Brazilian President
Jair Bolsonaro aroused global indignation in November when he affirmed: ‘Look,
you’re not going to do away with deforestation, or the burning – its cultural’.
But if he had said: ‘Look, you’re not going to do away with deforestation or
the burning, because they are supported by federal laws passed before I became
president’, he would have been closer to the truth....
the first episode of a weekly podcast, “Amazonia in Five Minutes,” presented by Jessica Carey-Webb. The podcast highlights publications from Amazonia Latitude’s magazine as well as cultural tips, in a dynamic and melodic format, to the tune of local rhythms.
The anthropologist
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro discusses indigenous resistance in the Amazon, the
indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, and his pessimism about the climate crisis
Translated by Tom Gatehouse. You can read the original, longer interview, (in Portuguese) here.
This is the third in a series of articles written and published in Portuguese by Agência Pública, São Paulo and translated and published in...
Illegal mining poisons the Amazon
A new film by Jorge Bodansky analyzes the mercury contamination
of Amazonian rivers as a result of illegal mining
Renowned Brazilian filmmaker Jorge Bodansky will preview his new film “Amazonia: the new Minamata?” on 1 February, during the International Colloquium “Amazonia: Rising Violence and Disturbing Trends”, in the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford....
In the villages of Tabatinga, Amazonas, Ticuna midwives work
according to ancestral traditions, honing their skills generation after
generation. However, they remain unrecognised by the state.
Translated for LAB by Tom Gatehouse. You can read the original (in Portuguese) here. This is the first in what we hope will be a series of articles by LAB partner Agência Pública, São Paulo.
“Three of...
This article is available on Deutsche Welle's English website. You can read the original Portuguese article here.
Main image: Dr Erik Jennings (left) has been helping to treat remote indigenous people for more than 20 years. Image: Erik Jennings
The funeral of an 87-year-old indigenous woman of the Borari
ethnicity mobilized an entire neighborhood on March 20. Hundreds of people
showed up to...
This article was edited by LAB. The authors’ original text (in Portuguese) can be found here.
The authors argue that the acceleration of Amazonian deforestation and environmental degradation —powered by successive blows from Bolsonaro’s government to neuter environmental protection policies — in a region where public healthcare is at best precarious, has amplified the lethality of diseases, especially Covid-19.
Removing protection...
COVID-19 kills the elderly, those with underlying health conditions, the poor and vulnerable. It is now doing so in the Brazilian Amazon where the virus killed nine Munduruku indigenous elders in just a few days. Forest people elders are typically leaders and keepers of culture, so their loss is especially destabilizing.Officially, 218 indigenous people had died of COVID-19 and...