Chapter 5 - Indigenous peoples and the rights of nature

The short film El Silencio del Rio, ‘The Silence of the River’, by Peruvian director Francesca Canepa, won the Grand Jury Award at the Oscar-qualifying Calgary International Film Festival and is currently longlisted in the Best Short Film category for the 2021 Academy Awards. Mathilde Aupetit considers the film’s blurring of dream and reality in order to present an Amazonian perspective, and its representation of the narrative power of nature.

This video essay from LAB partner Ojos Ilegales Red, Venezuela, tells the story of Leonardo Milian Ruiz, a member of the Pumé community. Milian left his territory Boca Tronador, on Riecito in Apure State, near the the Venezuelan border with Colombia, after cattle ranchers continually invaded their territory.

Scarred by a brutal massacre which took place in December of 1997 and left 45 dead, the residents of Acteal, in the highlands of Chiapas, continue to remind the world never to forget. One woman is at the forefront.

Extraordinary history of groups of former slaves, indigenous and others in the Cerrado who have forged a sustainable lifestyle from gathering sought-after sempre-vivas flowers and selling them, with enormous care to preserve the environment. Now rewarded by the UN's FAO, they face encroachments from mining and a national park

Covid 19 will affect Brazil’s indigenous groups for many years, not only because of the number of lives it has taken but also because among those dead are many important indigenous leaders. LAB briefly profiles one important leader who recently succumbed to the disease.

Brazil’s indigenous peoples face the most serious threats since the military dictatorship: a government determined to eliminate their rights, abolish their culture and ‘integrate’ them into an ultra-neoliberal economy; and a pandemic to which they are particularly vulnerable and which threatens their very existence. This first of three articles examines the history of 'pandemonium'

While the pandemic rages and Bolsonaro and his ministers ignore or belittle its effects, indigenous communities face renewed invasion by miners, loggers and land thieves who bring infection with them

Confronted with the denial of science, racism and land-greed of the modern 'colonisers', indigenous communities decided to resist and are receiving international recognition for their work.

Brazil's land grabbers are posting the plots they’re selling on Facebook because the lawbreakers say they have virtually no fear of prosecution. Facebook said that it was “ready to work with the local authorities” to investigate the alleged crimes but that it would not be taking action on its own.

Kadiwéu people from Mato Grosso do Sul have survived against the odds. Now their eye-catching traditional designs are being used on fashionable bags and dresses. Will they benefit, and will they survive deforestation and the pandemic?