 Hello, Kwe-Kwe. I'm an indigenous house crystal. My name is Crystal Bezley and I'm the indigenous rights program coordinator at Kairos. And I'm very happy to welcome everyone to the Kairos online teaching stories of courage women defending land and water in Canada and Brazil. I would like to acknowledge to start off this event and create the sacred space of sharing and acknowledge the land that I'm currently located on, which is my ancestral O'Mami Weninia Ki, the Algonquin territory located in Eastern Ontario in Canada. Since 2014, Kairos Canada Ecumenical Justice Initiative has had a programmatic focus on the gendered impacts of resource extraction in Canada and the global south. Kairos works in partnership with women land and water defenders, primarily indigenous women and organizations to make visible the impacts of resource extraction on women to draw attention to women's work in the defense of community rights and the environment and to press for indigenous women's recognition as key policy stakeholders and decision makers through mechanisms such as free, prior and informed consent and is stipulated by the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. And Kairos also advocates for corporate accountability of the Canadian extractive sector operating abroad. Now I'm very, very excited to be a part of this day today and I'm very happy to see all of you joining us here and this is actually a continuation and in November 2019 Kairos launched the first phase of the Living Digital Hub which is the mother earth and resource extracting women defending land and water. So the mayor hub brings together original and existing material to support research and advocacy, information sharing and movement building on the gendered impacts of resource extraction. The first phase that began in November focused almost exclusively on Latin America. This next phase which highlights land defense in Canada will launch this Sunday, June 21st on National Indigenous Peoples Day. To celebrate the launch of mayor hub, we are very honored to have with us today for very courageous leaders in the protection of mother earth. Alma Brooks is a well-asked grandmother. It was Alma's idea that Kairos take a programmatic focus on the gendered impacts of resource extraction. We did have a Doreen Bernard, a Mi'kmaq grandmother who was set to join us but unfortunately there seems to be a little bit of technical barriers there so we haven't had Doreen join us thus far but hopefully in another opportunity. Also joining us is Loretta Williams. Loretta is the chair of the First Nations Women Advocating Responsible Mining. And we also have Avalyn Boniakka. She is a, sorry, Cam Biewa woman who specializes on, sorry, I just have this here. She's a Cam Biewa woman who specializes on gender and race, religious studies, human, Indigenous women's rights. Avalyn is the founder of Minaj-Hera Support Committee for Indigenous Causes, which has 100 Indigenous families in the city. And is the first Indigenous woman to occupy a position of parliamentary advisor. After being also the first Indigenous woman to run in 2016 in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minaj-Heras, Brazil. And I apologize if I pronounced anything wrong. So today we're moderating, we have a very special person moderating the teaching today, and this is Sherry Pictu. Sherry is an assistant professor of women's studies at Mount St. Vincent University and she'll be taking a new position as assistant professor in the departments of law and management at Dalhousie University starting July 1st. So Dr. Pictu is a Mi'gma woman from Lista Jug. The water cuts through high rocks is how the community is known, or rather the interpretation of this book. And known as Bear River First Nation Nova Scotia. Professor Pictu and Kairos are collaborating on this SSHRC funded project on the gendered impacts of resource extraction. And again, I'm very honored to introduce Sherry and to welcome you all to this gathering and thank you all for being here today. Mi'gma. Sorry about that. I always have a hard time remembering when to mute and unmute. Well, welcome everybody. I'm really honored to be here and to see that we have a great number of attendees as well. I just wanted to acknowledge that I'm from Mi'gma on Territory or Wabanaki, our ancestral homelands with our grandmother Elma Brooks and just to kind of acknowledge or to ask everybody to acknowledge wherever you are to try to think about the Indigenous people. The ancestral homelands that you're situated on. Just to think about that and because I know we have Loretta from British Columbia and well what's known today is British Columbia and so she may want to just say a little bit more about her ancestral homelands. So it's interesting to do things like this because usually we would host on our own ancestral territories, but just try to acknowledge those ancestral territories around the world, including our sister in the south, Evelyn as well. Okay, so the very first question is what brought you, well there are actually two questions, what brought you to land defense, land or water defense and what advice would you give to other women protecting land and water. And so we'll start out with Elma if you want to start out first. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, so the first question I'll try to answer it. I was born a farmer's daughter and so from a very early age I had a quite a strong connection with the land and the water because the farm that we lived on was on the beautiful Grand Lake and it was a little piece of heaven. It was a mixed farm. We lived completely off of the farm. My dad was a workaholic and he worked from daylight till dark, but we only went to town to buy food or anything twice a year. We would go just before Christmas and then we would go in the spring, he would go in the spring, but other than that we never went to town or went to store every day. So, you know, I, as I grew older, I began to notice because, you know, in my mother's day I heard the people talking about being able to drink the water from the Wallach to the beautiful river. They used to be able to drink the water from the brooks and the lakes. And then I remember when it became unsafe and they could no longer dip their buckets in the water in the river and make their teeth because they would get sick. And I remember the old people talking about that, we can't do this anymore because the river is being so polluted. And the other thing that I noticed growing up was the spray. They started to spray DDT everywhere for mosquitoes, but what they did was they started, we saw these little gold finches. Well, my dad would be cutting the hay. He would, he would come across these little gold finches just laying there just fluttering on the ground. So the poison, they were poisoning, poisoning, you know, everything and then the foxes would eat the gold finches and they would become sick. So there was this, I remember, I can remember when all those things began to happen. And I guess my first active involvement was when we found out that Southwest Energy from the Texas, a Texas company came here into our territory to do fracking. And we educated ourselves about what that was and the fact that that it caused earthquakes in many other places and that it contaminated the water underground. So we, we, and, and you don't have to say that it was really the women, the indigenous women who were on the front lines at that time. We blockaded roads. We made our voices heard, we went to sessions where they were promoting this, and we made sure that they understood that we did not want them to do that in our territory. We didn't, we were there to protect the water and we were there to protect the land. And so there were a few years of very, very aggressive actions that were taken to try to stop this company. And we did drive this company out of the territory. They had to go back home. And then the next thing we know, we hear that they want to open up an open pit mine up in the very heart of Plastic Week territory and, you know, with an open pit mine for tungsten and malignum. And so we had women, particularly women, but there were men too that went to help out to go up into that area and they started to build a camp. They built a camp right on the ore body. And then they were going to have a big, big, huge tailings pond. They wanted this tailings pond was supposed to be the largest anywhere in the world. And so we, we put camps there. And we, so there's still, there's still occupation in that area. And I don't know, we haven't heard anything about, you know, about the where that's going right now. But all we know is that they have not started to the pit open pit mine yet. So, and the spraying that's going on in our territory, where we continue to fight against that New Brunswick is saturated with glyphosate. It's poisoning the land. It's poisoning the water. It's poisoning our medicines. And, you know, I mean, now the earth, we've been speaking for 100 years. And now this little virus that's come, come is we have to respect, have a great extent of respect for this virus. But, but this is the elders are saying this is the earth that's helping herself in the only way that she knows how. And while we're, we're forced to stop and think, we're forced to stop stay home and think. What we should be doing, which what do we want, what path are we going to blaze for the future. And while this, while this little virus has shut us down for a while. The slow things down the earth is actually healing. And some of these little species are, are, are glad because there's this little chance for them that they will be exterminated for good. So, you know, this is the earth and if we don't want to listen to that, then we can look forward to more and maybe even worse than what we see right now. Because the earth is not going to allow herself to be destroyed by the hands of fools. So, so, Alma, can you just quickly, quickly, maybe provide some advice that you would give to other land protectors. My time up. Yes, but can you just quickly. Can you hear me. Yes, I hear you now. Can you just quickly provide some advice to other women land defenders. Well, I think all of us have an obligation to speak up and to protect the land and to make sure that our waters going to have clean drinking water for the future generations we all have that responsibility in any way that we can possibly do any every little thing that we're going to account. And one of the things that we're advocating for people is to start to grow your own food. I start to look for heritage seeds look for original seeds that you can save seeds and you can re grow them the next year, but providing food security is one way. The finding a section of ground that you can protect is another thing that can be done. We need to start to eat from our own territory. Is that enough. Okay. Thank you so much. And now we'll go to. We'll go to. What's my order here. Evelyn from Brazil. I'm from the Cambio. Good afternoon. I am the Evelyn. I'm from the Cambio. I'm from the Cambio. People. And I'm from the people. And my people come from a very harsh environment. There's little water there. The region from this is like a desert like a Savannah. It's very dread. In Brazil, we have more than 300 indigenous tribes. North to South and this diversity in the ethnicity of the people of the indigenous people is very large. In todos os biomas brasileiros. Catinga, Matatlântica, Amazônia, Serrado. No environmental here in Brazil. Catinga, Serrado. Floresta Amazônica. Amazon Forest. Nós, a 520 anos, viemos resistindo a essa colonização, a essa invasão e esse modelo de desenvolvimento que nos fere diretamente enquanto povos indígenas. For more than 500 years, we've been surviving these attacks against the indigenous people here in Brazil. Nesse momento, a população brasileira indígena que vivem em grande centro são 38% dos indígenas do Brasil. And now we have 38% of the indigenous people in Brazil living in big cities. Because of this devastation, this deforestation that comes from the farming business, we indigenous people had to move, had to migrate to big cities. E quando nós fazemos essa migração forçada por causa da mineração, por causa dessas agressões à mãe terra, nós tentamos proteger a mãe terra por outros meios, também que não apenas a luta no território tradicional. And because of this mining problem, this forest problem, we have to protect and we have to organize ourselves. Nós então tivemos uma grande migração para o sudeste do Brasil, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo. So we had a big migration to the southeast of Brazil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais. E aqui eu estou em Minas Gerais, um estado que está sendo completamente devastado pela mineração. And now I live here in Minas Gerais, a Brazilian state that has a big problem with mining. Uma das grandes predadoras do estado é uma companhia internacional, uma multinacional chamada Vale. One of the biggest predators here in Minas Gerais is an international company called Vale. A Vale, ela minera de ferro e devasta as montanhas e águas de minas. E nós tivemos dois crimes grandes recentemente. The company Vale devastates with its mining action and also devastates the water, our waters. Nós perdemos dois rios. O rio doce, que era chamado o rio Watu pelo povo Crenac. We lost two rivers. One was a sacred river called Watu. E o rio Paralpeba, que recentemente, por mais um crime da Vale, um rompimento de barrage de rejeitos, que matou muitas pessoas, destruiu o rio e o nosso iandereco. And the other river was called Paralpeba. And recently we had a tan disaster that killed our sacred river. E o nosso iandereco. And our iandereco, its indigenous word for good living, for way of living, with harmony in nature. Dessa forma a gente se organizou para manter a vida o nosso iandereco, mesmo fora do território tradicional e lutamos contra a mineração. Entendemos que não existe mineração não predatória e no atual governo, em que as brasileiras estamos vivendo, o atual presidente, ele está autorizando a mineração em terras indígenas. Nós estamos numa luta muito grande e quero agradecer a oportunidade de falar dela. So we are fighting to keep our way of life, our iandereco, against this actual government here in Brazil. E esse presidente atual quer legalizar. And this president wants to legalize the devastation and the forestation here in Brazil. And I would like to thank the opportunity to speak here. Thank you. Okay, everyone. Could you take just very briefly provide, make a statement maybe, what advice would you give to other land, women land defenders, based on her struggles in Brazil. This is a huge struggle that they're fighting to protect their water. What kind of advice or guidance would she give to other women who are also struggling in other parts of the world to protect their water and land. Sim, primeiro, auto proteção, nós precisamos nos proteger. First, self protection. We need to protect ourselves. Precisamos nos alimentar, dormir, tentar o máximo manter a saúde mental e emocional. We need to keep ourselves healthy. We need to eat well, we need to sleep well, keep our mental health, our body health. E manter a nossa conexão espiritual com a mãe terra. And keep our spiritual connection with mother earth. Porque essa luta são contrapoderes muito maiores do que nós. Because this fight is against a force that is bigger than us alone. Com muito mais dinheiro, recurso. With much more money, resources. E muita raiva que eles têm de tudo que é vivo e tudo que a mãe terra nos deu e criou. And a lot of anger that they have against all that is living, all that mother earth gave us. Então precisamos estar fortes nos curarmos para ajudarmos a curar outras mulheres que continuamos nos curando junto com a mãe terra. So we need to keep strong to heal ourselves in order to heal another women to help us heal together. Okay, thank you so much, Evelyn. Thank you. Okay, so now we'll go to the west coast to Loretta. And Loretta, we didn't have a chance to talk earlier, but I'm so honored to meet you and welcome you here. Hello everyone. Thank you for the invite. Thank you for the two stories that we've heard. You know, we hear the story. I've heard the story all over the world on fights like this. But again, my name is Loretta Williams. I'm from this ice-coating nation. I'm honey cuisine, which is one of six Chilcotin communities. And our land is very pristine. We are in the headwaters of the Fraser River. And so we protect the water very much. We're in the still-capped mountains and the backdrop of the coast mountains. And very clean water. So we can drink out of our streams. We can drink out of our rivers. And we'll always protect that. And that's something I've learned from my grandparents since at a very early age. You protect what you need. You know, you protect your water. You protect your wildlife because they will look after you. So I've grown up with that. You know, you only take what you need. You don't take too much. And so our, our battle has been going since 1864. We had Chilcotin war that happened in our territory. And it was our, it was our people that were, it was our people that were there. And I guess there was, there was a road construction crew coming through. And it was because of the gold rush back then. And our people worked with them at first. And until, until the road construction crew started. Disrespecting our women. You know, they started, they started kidnapping them. And bringing them. And they were protecting the land. And at that point. Our people really started protecting the land. And they, they, they wiped that crew. It actually because, because of that. And that road hasn't been built since. So at a very early year, we were protecting the land. And that, that hurt still comes down to me yet. So I continue to protect the land just as hard as they did. And that's very important to me. I'm with first nations women advocating for responsible mining. Is because I speak out against these, these mining companies that are in our areas. And I help other women, especially that are in British Columbia that are having the same problem. And who have the lack of resources. For me, it's been 15 years that I've been defending my land. Against a mining company that wanted to build an open pit, golden copper mine. And, you know, that's what we've been doing. And like I said, you know, we wanted to protect our waters and they would have impacted our waters and we, we protect our waters because of returning, spawning salmon every year. And so. We have a lot of things happening here in. In British Columbia, Canada. And especially in British Columbia, we have. The United Nations declaration of indigenous stories. So in the past 14 BC signed on to, um, and so that's, you know, that's the United Nations declaration of indigenous. Sorry, rights of indigenous people. And that had that will recognize and protect the human rights of indigenous people. So, um, and this is a part of reconciliation. their laws to, I guess, harmonize with UNDRIP. So we're in the process of doing that right now and we'll make sure that they do that. We'll hold them accountable to their word because they promised, they've made promises to all indigenous peoples. But we are still struggling. That's a good story there, but we're still struggling because of the projects that were started before November 2019. And so like I said, we're battling against Tessico, but we recently got some good news that Canada has told them to go away. So now we can finally celebrate that win. We have successfully guarded our lands. And plus like there's other things that have happened here. We had Mount Pauley, which is a mine waste tailings pond that had broken, which was five and a half years, sorry, which five and a half years we're still battling to get recognition of that and hold somebody accountable. Everyone has just walked away. So our resistance is still strong. And the advice that I wanna give to other land defenders is to keep up the resistance. Your future generations depend on it very much, holding up the fight and just hold up the fight, keep going and you know, like we're here in solidarity. While you're, when you protect your land and our connection to that land, like is very important because of the language that comes with that land, that culture and everything that comes with that land is very important to keep in connection with your people. Occupy your land, go out there and make your presence known out there, build cabins, hold gatherings and just have your people out there on the land. Sing your songs, songs are very important. Songs are very important to me. I'm a drummer myself. And so that's what I wanna say. And my last message is that we're always here in solidarity. Thank you so much, Loretta. Yes, there's a lot, there's a lot going out in British Columbia right now and we're keeping an eye on and thank you for that. Well, now we're gonna turn to our second question, our second round and we'll begin with Alma again. And the second question is, and you partially answered some of this, Alma, oh, sorry, what actions would you like to see from those not directly defending land and water? What would you like to see from those who are not directly involved in the fight? Well, I think, you know, this is a worldwide issue when you hear from indigenous people very, very similar stories all over the world. And I would have to say, you know, the earth needs us right now. The earth needs us as much as we need her. But I would say it's very important to practice our way of life, continue to practice our way of life, grow our own food, food sovereignty, bring that back, food securities, practice the ceremonies of your culture and your people, you know, follow the original instructions and if you don't know what they are, find out what they are. I believe that all peoples had and were given original instructions at the beginning of time and were told that when the earth was peopled and the people were placed at the four corners of the earth that each peoples were given a bundle, a path to walk on and a bundle with everything that they needed in order to live a good and happy life right here on this earth. So I think that we need to search for those paths, we need to pick up those bundles and we need to practice those ways and our ways of life. And from there people will begin to reconnect spiritually to the earth and to all other living things, our relatives. That's what we say when we go into our ceremonies, we acknowledge all of our relations in the natural world. It's Dempso. Okay, thank you so much, Alma. And so we'll go back to Evelyn and I'll repeat the question and Evelyn, do we see you? Yes, okay. And Levi, okay, fantastic. So the question is like, what actions would you like to see from those who are not directly protected in land and water? They're not defending that. What actions would you like to see from others? The first one is information. The people around the world needs to know what happens about their food, about the water they take. It's important to know that this water comes from resource. It's not bottle and box. And there are people that live directly from these resources. And this environmental racism is related to everyone, not just the indigenous people, it affects everyone. And this fight for the murder of Earth is for everyone. We need to use all the tools that we have in hands, like the social media and fight for the civil council. Every place we could fight, we need to fight. And we need to fight even in our congress, so we need to be represented for indigenous people. So that we can guarantee inside a constitution made by white people and for white people, that we can be represented for indigenous people. Inside a constitution made by white people and for white people, that the people from Mother Earth have the rights, and even Mother Earth has rights. If this one is a fight that everybody fights, it is going to be an awakening. So I make this invitation for an awakening through our ancestral force, our sacred rituals, and our mission. As grandmother Alma talked, we have the resources to live here in Earth, but we are being strongly attacked. We need to be sensitive to other people who don't feel connected. So they come together with us in this fight. Being known that if the water runs out for the indigenous people, it runs out for all the world. We here in Brazil we have the biggest indigenous people in the world. And we are the biggest guardians of the forest and of all Mother Earth. We are suffering directly with the actual Brazilian government that has paid the deforestation that is the biggest cause of global warming and also has authorized mining in the biggest scale inside indigenous territories. So we need to touch all society so it feels part responsible for society and also directly involved with all this destruction. So we need to be sensitive to other people who don't feel connected. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for that translation. So now we will go to Loretta. What actions would you like to see in the future? If you want to see some good news, what would you want to see further actions from others who are not directly involved in protected land and water? Are we talking more like government? I forgot to ask the question earlier. Are we talking about maybe some possible brothers and sisters that will come help us? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Whatever your heart feels there. So I'm going to start with probably just educating oneself is very important of all the projects that are happening. Be aware that this is happening everywhere. Find ways to help. And then advocates are very important for us. We've had a lot of people advocate for us and that has helped a lot over the years. Donate resources because all of our communities start out with nothing basically. Just our own people and our own stories. So it's very important that, you know, if people can donate their time to help us or whether it be through expertise or even money, money is very important because we're always looking for some dollars to get from A to B, whether it be to meetings or out to the land and whatnot. Visit communities that are being impacted. Visit the land that's being impacted. And I know from a lot of our people that have been assisting us just by visiting us and hearing our stories and going to the land, they were awakened. And so that assisted us. And also when I mentioned reconciliation earlier, I didn't mention that we are going, we've won a court case and we have title over our land. And so right now we are in negotiations with British Columbia and Canada. So reconciliation is a very important word to us. Along with restoration and justice and compensation, because all of the, all of those things we are, we are demanding from the government right now. So we're sitting here, we're sitting here. We are demanding from the government right now. So we're sitting at the table with the government and they know what's, what, what impacts that we've had so far, whether it be through mining or whether it should be through just settlement in our lands and also logging. Logging has been very impactful to our lands as well. So to the government, you know, it's, it's very important that they hear our stories and that they listen with their hearts because, and they also be receptive of our needs. So that's what reconciliation means to me. So I'll leave it at that, I think. Okay. Thank you so much, Loretta. That's a lot to fit in there to do the government and the potential advocates and allies. Thank you so much. And I think people tend to forget that, that not only are people women, particularly women out there, defend and land and water on one front and they're also trying to navigate through government on the other. And I think that's what I've been hearing from all three of you. So with that, we're going to take a few moments here, about maybe 20 minutes of some questions to the panelists. Okay. We have one here already from Jim and basically he's asking, how would you recommend linking women land defenders and food sovereignty to those living in urban areas in Canada? That's very interesting. How would you recommend linking women land defenders and food sovereignty to those living in urban areas in Canada? Alma, do you want to start trying to answer that? Do you want to try? I'll try, yeah, I'll try. Well, we're going on here in Kyrgyzstan, where we live, it's a city. And some of the folks, we have the Native Women's Association of Canada that has a program now, and it's called Women in Agriculture, Indigenous Women in Agriculture. And we're helping people, to educate people about how to build soil and how to start to grow food in their backyard. And there has been a very, you know, a lot of women signed up for it. And in fact, we tried to find heritage seeds early in May, and everybody must have the same idea, because we had none. They were sold out. These companies that have these seeds, they were sold out or they were backed up and you'd have to wait six months to get your seeds. So it's good to, like, we did start their gardens though. And we're having another session with our gardeners, all from different parts from the communities in the province here in the Brunswick. And we're trying to teach them how to build a soil so that the food that they grow will have some nutritional value. And what we're finding is that because of so much leaching that has been done over the years by farmers and use of chemicals and pesticides and herbicides and all kinds of poison, that the earth has become addicted. And so they have to use more and more and more in order to yield the same amount or more in their crops. So what we're trying to do is find the natural ways. How did our people, our people on the river here, we were not farmers, but we grew food, we grew medicines that was brought in and planted it close to the village on the river. There were various different traditional villages along the river. And in our research, we found also that this whole term you hear people calling it now permaculture, permaculture. And in the research, we found that Europeans went all over the world and they looked at the best practices from indigenous people and they copied those and packaged it and called it permaculture. And they came back and they said, look what we did. Look what we have, but they forgot to give any credibility or credit to the indigenous people from which they talk the knowledge. So we want to bring that back. We want to bring it back and we have managed to access a 125 acre beautiful piece of ground has never had any chemicals on it. It has 100 acres of wood lot, which is where a lot of our medicines are. And what we want to do is bring back all of the kinds of food that we know of that are natural and native of this territory and bring it to that place and plant it there so that we can protect it. And there'll be always a supply of food and medicine. So Elma, how would people in Frederton connect with that? Pardon me? How would people in Frederton connect that? That's living downtown Frederton or down? Well, the place is within a, you can drive there in half an hour. Okay. The place. But I mean other urban areas come there and learn how to do this and then take it back and start growing things in their own yard. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And Loretta? Any advice on how would you recommend Lincoln women land defenders and food sovereignty to those living in urban areas in Canada? I was just thinking the same thing. I was looking out the window like because I have a lot of First Nations neighbors and trying to think like, okay, how would I, how would I go about reaching out to them? And I think a lot of people are on Facebook, you know, you reach out through Facebook and and put that idea out there. Education is important, right? We all, and a lot of our women do want to get back to the land. They want to be able to like plant their own garden and stuff like, I want to plant my own garden. I live in the city. And so I think just reach finding ways to reach out to them, whether it be through the friendship centers or even through school programs. A lot of the students would like to see see that some of that, you know, they want to be able to reach out to them. They want to be able to reach out to them within their own programming in schools, First Nations, especially. Facebook is always a way, you know, social media is always important. So I think I'll leave it at that. That one's a difficult, that one's a really difficult question. I'm going to think about that one more. Yeah, it is. I do know that just from our experience in our community, we've had a lot of struggle against all the gas that communities, probably about 45 minutes an hour outside and where that struggle is going on. And it is a matter of through Facebook and a lot of awareness and so forth. And I know even at one point they had buses going out there that if anybody wanted to go out and join the struggle and so forth. But thank you very much for that. I know this was directed to Canada, but I wanted to also ask Evelyn if she could contribute here because in her story, they were basically forced to migrate to the city. And so Evelyn, I would like to extend this question. How would you, you know, you talked about deforestation, you talked about mining. How would you recommend Lincoln women who are struggling in that to other people living in the urban area or the city areas? Como eu disse antes, 38% da população brasileira está nos grandes centros da população indígena brasileira está nos grandes centros urbanos. As I said before, 38% of the indigenous population here in Brazil is in the big cities. Nós temos uma luta fundiária muito antiga. We have a land fight very, very old. E o que nós fazemos na cidade para sobreviver and what we do in the city in order to survive é manter a nossa tradição is to keep our tradition viva a life. Não temos território físico. We don't have physical land physical territory porque as pessoas migram da floresta because the people migrate from the forest das suas aldeias from their tribes para as periferias da cidade to the outskirts of the city. Casas muito pequenas very small houses muito pobres com pouca terra quase nada with almost no space uma casa em cima da outra a house above another e é quase impossível so it's almost impossible cultivar para sobrevivência to plant for survival. Então a nossa alimentação depende toda so our nutrition depends on das compras feitas no mercado depends from the food we buy in the market por causa disso because of this nós fomos atrás de ocupar novas terras we tried to occupy a new land e quando fomos a esse território a beira do rio para Alpeba and when we came to this land near river para Alpeba começamos a construir uma aldeia indígena who started to build a new indigenous tribe formada por pessoas indígenas made by indigenous people que saíram do território tradicional e viviam nessas favelas na cidade that came from their original territory and came to live in this city slums city outskirts e nesse território and in this territory começamos a cultivar e a retomar a ligação com a terra we started to plant and retake our connection with our land dois anos depois two years after a vale the company Vale cometeu crime committed a crime com o roubimento da barragem do feijão with the dead breakage que destruiu todo o rio that destroyed the entire river e tudo que já havíamos começado a construir and everything we started to build muitas pessoas retornaram a cidade a lot of these people returned to the city e continuamos a luta and kept the fight pra conseguir um pedaço de território pra que possamos reconstruir a nossa vida to get a new piece of land so we can rebuild our lives ok so the interest of time thank you Evelyn you really opened up our eyes to the displacement the displacement from your ancestral homelands and even the struggle to start over and thank you for that we have only about ten minutes left and I'm going to combine a couple of questions here that I think are interrelated one is from Matt we heard how important education is to bring in people to the fight and how and where should education begin and Evelyn that's and hopefully the two of these can be answered because we're talking about alliances she would like to know your opinion about potential alliances with feminist and ecologists non-indigenous organizations and movements have you made connections with those type of allies and I know Loretta said we do have a lot of advocates and it's not always easy but I'm going to try to lump those in like where should education begin I think we heard some of that in the previous questions where should education begin and what about the potential alliances to help with that particularly if there are other feminist and ecologists non-indigenous organizations anybody want to take that on Loretta? okay so over the last 15 years I guess when I first started in 2005 just getting the education out like having we were having meetings like in every town and handing out flyers and just educating people about our fight and hoping to get people on our side we had a lot of people that came in that were against what we were doing but that didn't stop us we just kept going we'd go to meetings in Vancouver we'd hold rallies and during those rallies we would invite people to come have tea and panic with us in the evening where our leaders could go and speak about our fight and they'd also speak about our title case as well and just share stories and tears because a lot of this is pretty hard on people I've had a couple of burnouts over the 15 years and it's very important that we look after ourselves like Evelyn said and I guess just going out and advocating for what you're fighting for it doesn't matter how you know you can advocate because I have like a page on Facebook and we put out a lot of information there and I also use my own page because I have about 2,000 friends and so any way possible whether it be through newspapers we had like ladies that had like reading groups and talk about our impacts like to our land and just any way possible you know you got to think outside the box don't stay in that little box that everybody puts you in think outside the box because there's a lot of important ways that you can get information out now nowadays compared to back then a lot of the stuff had to go out like via just letters and stuff and then it was like a lot of things and I think that was the case but we've got a lot of people inside which I'm very grateful for and they still work with us a lot so yeah I'll leave it that Thank you Loretta. Alma where should education start on Muturself and what about potential allies Yes, no I agree with everything Loretta said and also you know I think and conferences and lectures and opportunities we can make to educate the public I noticed that a lot of times when we invite people to come to spiritual ceremonies they learn and it's a life-changing experience for them many many many times many people so I think that's so very important that we do that they have to have a relationship with the world around them different than what they've had in the past because they're headed for a brick wall they're the very same forces that are hurting us are the same forces that are hurting the earth and so we have to we don't see it I don't think they see it so it's up to us and I was told a long time ago survivors of the residential schools when I went to listen to them at some of their healing sessions and they said you know they were told our people are going people are going to come to us to show them how to walk on this earth and some of the elders just put their hands up in the air like they said oh my god it was so overwhelming for them but I believe that's true I think that's the way it's going to be thank you survival of life on this planet thank you so much Evelyn where should education start for having people to help us I'm a teacher here in Brazil in Minas Gerais and I believe that education needs to start from the school from the school and I believe this education should begin in school education from the first formation since from the first formation it needs to have the knowledge of our real history it is needed that we should know our real history in the countries where we suffer the colonization we the indigenous people we have the history told by the conqueror we have the history told by the point of view of the conqueror we have the history told by the point of view of the conqueror so to do this education work we need to start from the beginning from very small from with the little one since the child until all the phases of formal education until all the phases of formal education until all the phases of formal education formal education and also in formal education and also in formal education like Alma brought to us that is living with us that is living with us that is living with us to participate of the rituals to learn about us to learn about us they do not know anything about the indigenous people it is not taught in the schools it is not taught in the schools even in the universities we are like a function of Mother Earth's rescue of Mother Earth's rescue of Mother Earth's rescue of Mother Earth's rescue of Mother Earth's rescue of Mother Earth's rescue and also to prepare others to this awakening so I believe that formal education is a fundamental tool so I believe that formal education is a fundamental tool so that we can change and bring new opportunities through this generation that has the knowledge of the real history of original people and of its own real history in Brazil we have the law onze mil seiscentos quarenta e cinco we have the law onze mil seiscentos quarenta e cinco eleven thousand que obriga that obliges o ensino da cultura indígena e afro-brasileira the teaching of the indigenous culture and afro-brasilean culture nas escolas públicas e privadas mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido mas não é cumprido be able to get in because this directly pertains to Evelyn. It's from Judith and it says, you talked of two damn disasters in Brazil. I cannot pronounce these names, Marina, Brumadino. I'm probably not pronouncing that but there's these two damn disasters and I don't know what context this is in but is Vale recognizing the rights of those who are affected by those disasters? Has there ever been any compensation to women who lost their land, water or their homes? If you could answer that just briefly because we're kind of running out of time here. Yes. These are two crimes of the company Vale. There has been only two years separating one from another. The company started with compensations, money compensations. Very low, very low. And they didn't show any plan to the recovery of the river. They pay monthly the minimum wage, the equivalent of the minimum wage here in Brazil to the families around thousand dollars, thousand reais, monthly. And it isn't enough to maintain and to keep the families alive so they have to come to the city. We keep our fights here along the government, along the public ministry here. Fighting for the river recovery. And also a land reallocation of the families directly involved in the disaster. So these people can't have the water, can't have the rituals, can't have their food. Thank you so much. Thank you so much and I apologize for cutting you off but I know we're sort of running out of time and I'll try to speak to, there was one more here and it's really interesting because Loretta you talked about reconciliation. But I'll try to maybe sum up on that when we sum up. And if you don't mind what I'm going to say I want to reiterate that this is going to, this is being recorded, this will be available, this teach in. I thank everybody for participating. It's such an honor and you always learn the differences but you also learn the commonalities as well. And if the panelists don't mind, if there's somebody that had an outstanding question that did not get answered, you can get a hold of Cairo's or maybe they can contact one of the panelists or you may, or if the panelists may want to offer their emails as well. So I would like to extend that invitation to even learn more. And I'm just going to sum up, take a couple of minutes to try to sum up here. Basically what I've heard that was common throughout Turtle Island, North, South is that there seems to be two perspectives when it comes to Mother Earth. Two perspectives about indigenous peoples. And one is from, and I classify this in one because we're hearing where the government often is working with corporations, even though the government is supposed to be protecting indigenous people and their lands, that they are working with corporations to exploit those very lands. So there's a contradiction there. And most of places it's like the government is advocating for the company while regulating. And secondly is that there's been, and this probably relates to Fravorico's question a bit because he was asking about the importance of policies that aim to value the memories of the violence even that's been taken against indigenous people as well as those policies for reparations for those violence. Well, it's been very, very difficult and particularly for indigenous women. And I'll speak for a second here in Canada is that there is a disrespect for indigenous women's bodies. This has always been the case. The indigenous bodies, women's bodies particularly has been regarded as property. And so this runs, how can I say, this is a contradiction to indigenous thought. Because what I've heard from all our three panelists is that indigenous lives is connected to the land and water. And water is medicine. And if you look at it, how long can you live without water? And this is what is so fundamentally important when we're going up against these corporations. Secondly, that we are so intricately interconnected, you heard Alma talk about all of our relations. All of our relations, I know in me, Gmagi and in Alma, and I've also heard this in Loretta's talk as well is all of life. They are all our relations and should be treated as such. I also heard very valuable teaching from Evelyn and I know Loretta relates this, I know Al-Makin, because we all burn out is how do we self protect ourselves? How do we self heal ourselves? Because we cannot just burn ourselves out as indigenous women. And that was a really important lesson. And some of that was some of those teachings, as you've heard, that we're hoping that the rest of you can take lessons from is reconnecting to the land and water, reconnecting to our ceremonies. These ceremonies are not just for show, they are they are about all of our relations. Yeah, to call on all of our relatives. I also heard throughout the fundamental importance of how food and water is very important. And I think this is something that we've learned, especially during this time with COVID, that we have to assert food sovereignty. Rather that's hunting, fishing, or as Alma they're doing is they're growing their own food. And I know that's difficult for the urban areas. But I would also encourage people living in urban areas to think about that. So I've got to just sum up here because we only got about one minute. I will just end with that environmental issues are related to everybody. Take the invitations of our panelists to visit the land, visit indigenous people, and just visit. And you'll learn so much that way. And you are welcome. I think we've been taught to think that we have to be separate and we don't. We welcome you into our ancestral homelands. And so I'll just end it with that. And I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do after this, Gabriela, or there we have, we have so okay. So just in closing, a quick moment to bring us all back together. And on behalf of Carlos, thank you to everyone. I would especially like to thank our panelists Alma Brooks, Loretta Williams, Evelyn Bonacca, and of course, unfortunately, Doreen Bernard, who couldn't join us, and especially for Sherry Pictu for moderating. I'd also like to thank our interpreters, Rebecca Gimenez, Guillermo Pompo, Paulina Baez, and Levy Kecatu. And Daniela Campalina for helping coordinate today. Please keep an eye out on the Kairos website. The recordings from today's teaching will be available there in the very, very briefly in the next few days. And remember that Kairos is launching the Canadian content of Marehub this Sunday. So follow Marehub on social media, it's on Instagram, it's on Facebook. And the website is spectacular. So please take some time this week, this weekend, check out the website and see what's happening. And once more, miigwech to all of you, Marci, Will Allen, thank you for joining us today and be well.