Mon 2 Sep 2019 07.00 BSTLast
modified on Tue 3 Sep 2019 10.35 BST,
The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/02/amazon-destruction-earth-brazilian-kayapo-people
Chief of the indigenous Brazilian
Kayapó people
VIDEO Raoni Metuktire
You destroy our
lands, poison the planet and sow death, because you are lost. And soon it will
be too late to change
(‘Non-indigenous
peoples have invaded our lands and are now burning even those small parts of
the forests where we live, that you have left for us.’ Forest fires in
Altamira, Pará state, Brazil. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images)
For many years we, the indigenous leaders and peoples
of the Amazon, have been warning you, our brothers who have brought so much damage to our forests. What you are doing will change the whole world and
will destroy our home – and it will destroy your home too.
We have set aside our divided history to come
together. Only a generation ago, many of our tribes were fighting each other,
but now we are together, fighting together against our common enemy. And that
common enemy is you, the non-indigenous peoples who have invaded our lands and
are now
