December 3, 2021

07:12

Iury Lima – from Cenarium Magazine

VILHENA (RO) – The only Brazilian to speak at the opening of the 26th Climate Conference, several times registered together with renowned activists, such as Swedish Greta Thumberg, a favorite target for interviews by the international press, the young 24-year-old Txai Suruí has used the power of social networks to spread the word about her fight. Born in the indigenous reserve 7 de Setembro, in Rondônia, the Brazilian activist shows, through the Internet, the woes that the forest native people face in their communities far away from the Amazon.

It was no different when, together with her father, also an activist, Almir Suruí, she participated in the latest edition of the program Roda Viva, on TV Cultura. During the program, the young activist reaffirmed the importance of using technology as a tool.

Carpet of devastation

The image below is a comparison between the years 1984 and 2016, the period in which deforestation advanced around the indigenous territory that has almost 250,000 hectares, home to the Paiter Suruí, people with more than 6,000 years of history and traditions, who are subdivided among 28 villages. The complaint is made by Txai Suruí, who revealed the carpet of destruction in a video published through a social network, gathering satellite images over 32 years.

“That is why I say that we, indigenous peoples, are in the front line of the fight against climate change. The satellite shows, year by year, the advance of deforestation in Rondônia, but one area resists: my home, the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Land. It is very clear the difference of the forest inside and outside the territory”, wrote the young woman.

In July this year, four people were arrested by the Federal Police for deforesting inside the Conservation Unit.

Cattle in indigenous cemetery

In another post, the young leader denounced the invasion and the burning of the territory of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau ethnic group, also in Rondônia, by cattle ranchers. The invaders opened pasture on an ancient indigenous cemetery, a sacred place for the community inhabitants. According to Txai, the discovery came after the NASA satellite pointed out a large fire in the reserve.

“Although it was far from the villages, the fire was so big that the smoke drew the indigenous people’s attention. A few days later I went to investigate the place together with the Monitoring Team of the Jupaú Association (an entity that defends the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau ethno-environmental rights) and what we found was absurd: invaders had burned the forest to put thousands of cattle heads on top of an ancient indigenous cemetery”, he revealed with indignation.

Remember when I said that agro is death and about the pressures that the Uru Eu Wau Wau IT is going through? We came to investigate some invasions here within the territory and this is what we found: pic.twitter.com/S9LN3cpB8v

• txai suruí #MarcoTemporalNo (@walela15) September 16, 2021

Txai Suruí is denouncing this through social networks. (Reproduction/Twitter)

The Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous Land is located in the central region of the state of Rondônia, inhabited by eight other peoples: the Amondawa, Isolated Bananeira, Isolated Cautário, Isolated Oriente, Isolated Tiradentes, Juma, Kawahiva Isolated Muqui and Oro Win.

In the month of September alone, deforestation increased 538% compared to August of this year, equivalent to 83 hectares of land. The territory also has 805 properties and irregular properties with registrations overlapping the area of the Indigenous Land (TI), according to the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and, therefore, is the second TI with the highest index of the category.

Technology as a ‘weapon’

During last Monday’s edition of TV Cultura’s Roda Viva program, in which CENARIUM participated, Txai Surui reaffirmed the use of technology as a weapon for indigenous peoples. The argument refuted the preconceived idea that traditional peoples “cannot thrive and use the modernization of communication to their advantage”.

“Indigenous peoples use technology as a weapon, precisely to take our voices to more and more spaces (…) We are still not listened to in the same way. And I think that we can only change these spaces by decolonizing them,” answered the activist.

Today, the activist invests in disseminating the ideas she defends on Instagram and Twitter profiles, but her name is mentioned in all social networks, and a quick search on search engines is enough to find references.