The parallel makes her smile. Txai Surui, 24, would therefore be “the Greta Thunberg of Brazil”, in reference to the Swedish high school student at the origin of the youth strikes for the climate. “Greta is a wonderful girl, concedes the one who passes for the new face of Brazilian indigenous activism. But what she says, we Amazonian Indians have always said, without anyone listening to us”, she adds on the set of Roda VivaBrazil’s main political talk show.
Six months ago, at the opening of the United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow (COP26), the world listened to Walelasoetxeige Paiter Bandeira Surui, known as Txai Surui, challenge the leaders of the planet. A first step towards the “decolonization of spaces of speech”, as explained by the one who became that day the first Brazilian woman of Amerindian origin to speak in such high places. And moreover, in English, that she speaks fluently.
“Amerindian peoples are on the front line of the climate emergency, which is why we must be at the center of the decisions that are taken here”, she then claimed from the podium of COP26 where, in the absence of the President Jair Bolsonaro, she is the only representative of Brazil, the main Amazonian country, to speak. “We are fighting at the cost of our lives to preserve the Amazon and the planet,” says the young woman who, after the long media reign of the great Kayapo chief Raoni, is in the process of embodying the revival of the indigenous struggle in Brazil.
Even in her country, the Amerindian was until then little known outside of associative circles, where she is very active. But since then, the TV sets are tearing it up. And the Folha de Sao PauloBrazil’s main newspaper, offers her a weekly column, where she talks about the weakening, by the far right in power, of environmental governance or even about the importance for Indians to participate in political life. of the country, where they remain very poorly represented.
Collective struggle approach
Txai Surui is on all fronts, in indigenous and youth collectives as well as within the movements for “climate justice” and forest protection. Recently, the activist with 59,000 subscribers on Instagram mobilized for the sit-in which took place in Brasilia in April against a bill authorizing the exploitation of the rich subsoil of indigenous reserves. It is a question of opposing the government’s offensive aimed at unraveling the rights of Amerindians, which nevertheless appear in the 1988 Constitution, written at the end of the dictatorship.
“Txai has the makings of a leader, but above all, she is part of a process of collective struggle, describes the ecologist Paloma Costa, who had suggested her name to the entourage of the UN Secretary General to participate at COP26. That’s what makes her so representative.” And not only of the Indian cause. Organizations for the defense of blacks have also dubbed her. Because the marginalized populations of large cities are also hit hard by “extreme climatic events” linked to global warming, such as the floods that killed hundreds in Brazil at the start of the year.
A law student in Porto Velho, the capital of the Amazonian state of Rondônia, “Txai Surui belongs to a new generation of Indians who have had access to education and lead a modern life, but without giving up culture and the historical cause of indigenous peoples”, explains Adriana Ramos, adviser to the Socio-Environmental Institute in Brazil, an association dedicated to the defense of these peoples.
Fight “against a fascist and genocidal project”
The indigenous “cause”, she grew up with. His father, Almir Surui, is the leader of the Paiter Surui, an ethnic group of 1,500 souls who, on the borders of Rondônia, resists as best he can the assaults of the clearers. His mother, the white historian Ivaneide Bandeira, is a figure in the indigenist movement. As a child, little Txai accompanied him on demonstrations in favor of the recognition of the ancestral territories of the Amerindians, which farmers, breeders, loggers and other gold diggers disputed with them.
Under Jair Bolsonaro, “we are fighting against a fascist and genocidal project which consists in eliminating our forests as well as the people who live there”, writes the activist. Accusing the head of state “to encourage the illegal invasion of indigenous lands”. The number of incursions into these territories has more than doubled since 2018, just before he came to power. In 2020, 182 Indians were killed in these land disputes – unheard of in a quarter of a century. Not to mention the 900 victims of the coronavirus, spread by the invaders. A heavy toll, reduced to the low demographic weight of the Indians of Brazil: 900,000 people, or 0.5% of the population.
As for the clearing of the Amazon, it is at its highest level for fifteen years. In just twelve months, 13,235 square kilometers of forest, equivalent to the area of Northern Ireland or Montenegro, went up in smoke between 2020 and 2021. This brings the largest rainforest on the planet even closer to the point of no return from which, according to experts, the vegetation will no longer be able to regenerate. This is the idea that Jair Bolsonaro has of “development”…
Insulted and threatened on social networks
“At COP26, Txai Surui wisely refrained from openly criticizing his policy, preferring to link the indigenous issue to the climate issue”, observes Mauricio Voivodic, director of the local branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), who admires the “impressive maturity” of the young woman. “The problems of the Amerindians predate this government, even if it has considerably worsened their situation”, specifies the association leader. This did not prevent the far-right president from accusing him of “speaking ill of his country”. After which Bolsonaro supporters showered her with racist slurs and threats on social media.
But the threats she grew up with. His parents were victims and his childhood friend, an Amerindian from the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people, was killed “because he was protecting the forest”. “She herself runs a risk, believes Mauricio Voivodic, especially since she goes to the field, in disputed territories.”
“Any Indian who exposes himself is targeted, confirms Adriana Ramos, the adviser of the Socio-Environmental Institute. Because under Bolsonaro, organized crime is gaining ground in the Amazon and firearms are proliferating like never before. Those who destroy the forest and attack indigenous communities feel protected, since the head of state himself encourages the violation of the constitutional rights of the Indians of Brazil. The risks are increased”. “I’m not afraid,” insists Txai Surui. Before recovering: “Finally yes. Often…”