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Most of the media coverage of COP27, held in November 2022 in Egypt, concentrated on speeches by world leaders, and disappointingly familiar pledges to recommit to the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, there is a strong sense now that the youth movement has an ever-louder voice, and that youth activists will continue to push for decision-makers to be held accountable.
Most of the media coverage of COP27, held in November 2022 in Egypt, concentrated on speeches by world leaders, and disappointingly familiar pledges to recommit to the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, there is a strong sense now that the youth movement has an ever-louder voice, and that youth activists will continue to push for decision-makers to be held accountable.As Indigenous Terena youth, Cerizi Francelino and Taily Terena were invited to participate in COP27 and share their perspective from the Brazilian Pantanal and Cerrado, bringing their demands and contributions for the protection of the Earth and mitigation of the climate crisis.
“We must always be prepared; if we have the opportunity to take our message to the world, we must be there, even if we do not know how to speak the language they speak, we are the ones who must speak on behalf of our people”.
These are the words of our elders that we always carry with us. By attending COP27, we had the opportunity to connect with other peoples from all over the world, and exchange experiences, good practices in land management, and youth engagement.
Most importantly, our participation at COP27 enabled us to carry the message of our elders, sharing what we have learnt in our village, and thinking about caring for our home, our territory, our planet, and all the biodiversity in it.
Cerizi was travelling outside the country alone for the first time, without knowing any language other than Terena and Portuguese. But the importance of conveying the messages of the Terena, even across language barriers, is vital. Image © Katie Maehler
We need to decolonise the idea of thinking of biomes separately and understand the strong connection they have with each other.
We had the opportunity to share with the world that the Amazon in Brazil is not the only ecosystem we should be concerned about. To save the planet from the climate crisis, we need to understand that all biomes are interconnected and that we are the people who care for and protect the natural world.
Preserving traditional knowledge
Taily, Cerizi, and their collective work with their elders, promoting the good living of Terena youth with the village leadership through collective actions and implementation of projects that seek to retake the territory and the practice of our knowledge. Image © Inamatí Xâne
We are Cerizi Francelino and Taily Terena. We belong to the same Indigenous group in Brazil: the Terena. However, we come from different backgrounds due to the way colonisation has affected our people since contact with the Europeans in the 16th century.
Taily is an anthropologist and Indigenous person from an urban background, studying women and traditional knowledge. Cerizi is a geographer from the Taunay/Ipegue Indigenous Territory, specifically the Pânana village, studying territory and traditional knowledge.
Both of us belong to the Inamatí Xâne Terenoe Collective, an organisation created by Terena youth to maintain and preserve our traditional knowledge. We work with our elders to reclaim our territory and practices.
Exchange of voices at COP27
Taily and Cerizi also had the opportunity to participate in the collective construction of the Youth Climate Charter, delivered to recently elected President Lula and the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva.
Although we did not have speaking space in the climate negotiations, there were several moments of listening and being listened to, learning and teaching, sharing, and growing together.
We had the opportunity to participate in some side events in the Blue Zone, such as “¡No sin nosotras – not without us!”, a panel about women’s participation in the climate struggle in Abya Yala, and another panel about Pacific Indigenous youth stories.
We held our first COP event, “Indigenous Youth on the Front Line defending the Territory: Biomes, Strategies and Ancestrality”, which brought together the perspectives of Indigenous youth from different regions of Brazil.
Changing the moment
We believe that there are several paths to changing the current moment humanity is living. But first, we must decolonise our minds and these spaces and recognise Indigenous Peoples’ work to protect the Earth.
We cannot think only of the individual, this has made humanity sick – more and more, our home (Earth) is being exploited in the name of development and profit. We need to stop this now!
We see the outcome of the COP27 as a significant setback because, despite the guarantee of the creation of the Loss and Damage Fund, the rights of Indigenous Peoples were removed from the main negotiating items, such as Article 6.
It is crucial to guarantee the continued participation of Indigenous Peoples so that we can take our demands and perspectives to these spaces and guarantee our rights. But we need support to have more political influence and break down the barriers, like language, that hinder our participation. English dominated with very technical terminology at COP27, which would have been hard enough as it was, but Cerizi was also travelling outside Brazil alone for the first time, without any languages other than Terena and Portuguese.
Ainapó Nguixopí (thank you very much) to all those who have contributed to making it possible for us to go to COP27. This is a way for you to support our struggle to promote the rights of Indigenous Peoples and our home, the Earth.