Jackson Wild Film Festival
The chief Juma Xipaia traveled to Austria at the end of September at Jackson Wild’s Film Festival invitation. On the first day of the trip she participated in a lunch, offered by the St. Martins Therme Lodge. During lunch, she moved everyone with her speech about the current situation in the Amazon. Juma emphasized that one of the biggest challenges in continuing her work is her safety, as well as that of the indigenous people and especially the indigenous leaders. One of the questions asked after her speech was about what they, as Europeans, could do to help with the security issue. The Chief replied that the recognition that European countries also contribute to the violence that is now occurring to the peoples in the Amazon is very important, as is the strengthening and support of initiatives such as those of the Juma Institute.
The next day Juma was present at the Jackson Wild Film Festival, at which she was the event’s keynote opening speaker (Lecture available here). During her talk, she presented the biggest current impacts of the Amazon, such as illegal mining and deforestation, using data from MapBiomas and photos by photographers Kamikia Kisedje, Todd Southgate and Fábio Nascimento. Brazil is going through a period in which the area of forest cleared in 2022 is the largest in 15 years (Source: Imazon). The loss of native vegetation in the last 30 years was 69 million hectares, and among the land categories the Indigenous Lands are among the most protected areas. In the last 30 years in Brazil, indigenous lands lost only 1% of their area of native vegetation, while in private areas the loss was 20.6% (Source: MapBiomas). These data reinforce the importance and the strength of the indigenous peoples to maintain the forest standing inside the Indigenous Lands.
Then she showed her work with the communities, such as the exchange of native seeds, exchange of traditional knowledge and strengthening of indigenous identity. Juma also talked about the dreams she has for the Middle Xingu region and the Xipaya Indigenous Territory, which involves improving the quality of life and health of the indigenous people.
After the talk Juma was awarded the Jackson Wild’s Grand Prismatic Award, which is a special recognition by a jury of peers that celebrates individuals of impact and innovative content pushing the boundaries of storytelling about nature, science and conservation. This award honors storytellers who are committed to accelerating the representation of their communities in wildlife, conservation and/or science through a unique perspective. Juma received the award from Executive Director Lisa Samford, and was also honored during the award presentation by the First Lady of Austria, Doris Schmidauer.
We thank Jackson Wild for the invitation, Petra Gnaid, Lisa Samford and the entire event organization team, Klaus Hoffmann, Angie Rattay, Richard and Anita Ladkani, and all who hosted Instituto Juma in Austria.
