Juma Institute in Austria: Erdgespräche Event and visit to the Presidential Palace
On April 20, 2022, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen and his wife Doris Schmidauer received chieftain Juma Xipaia at his presidential palace in Vienna to talk about the crisis in the Amazon. Juma was very well received and was able to talk about the importance of the Amazon rainforest for indigenous peoples and the health of all humanity.
The following day, April 21, Chief Juma Xipaia participated as a speaker at the event Erdgespräche (Conversations about the Earth), organized by Neon Green Network (https://neongreen.net/home-en) in Vienna, Austria. It was a beautiful event, with the participation of the country’s president, the environment minister, parliamentarians, environmentalists, young people, and civil society. Juma spoke about the recent invasion by prospectors of her Xipaya territory, in Pará, and the constant invasions, threats, aggressions, murders, and all types of violence that Brazilian indigenous peoples have been suffering.
Juma warned the European community to defend biodiversity and the Amazon peoples. She said that Europe can also pressure internal changes, such as greater regularization of the international gold market, which today is absolutely obsolete, with very little control and transparency (https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/amazon-to-alps-swiss-gold-imports-from-brazil-tread-a-legal-minefield/).
At this event, Juma had the opportunity to deliver two letters to the President of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen, the Minister of the Environment, Leonore Gewessler, and the European Parliamentarian Thomas Waitz.
One of the letters came from the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), reporting the current threats and setbacks suffered by indigenous peoples in the Amazon in various territories and specifying how Austria can be an ally of the indigenous peoples of Brazil for the protection of the largest forest of the planet.
The other letter comes from the Mixed Parliamentary Front in Defense of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and reports the dangers and serious economic, social and environmental impacts that could result from the approval of the bill (PL) 191/2020, which aims to release mining on indigenous peoples land. These dangers and serious impacts are not just for indigenous peoples, but for everyone.
We are immensely grateful to everyone who made this trip and our participation in this event possible. Especially to Angie, André, Caro Emilie, Saša & Britta, Maria, and Mike, but also to all volunteers and everyone present and behind the scenes of this event.
