Raoni Metuktire
Biography:
Raoni Metuktire, also called Chief Raoni or Ropni is a indigenous person living in the Amazon rainforest. He was born in 1932 and he is the chief of the Kayapo people. These last four decades he has become the symbol of the fight for conserving the Amazon Rainforest and for preserving the thousand years old traditions of the indeginous people. The chief has met the world's biggest leaders but is still keeping his simplicity, his determination and his stoicity. He has and is still inspiring thousands of people by his person, his actions and his speeches.
what is his lip plate ?
In his indeginous people, wearing this lip plate is a war symbol showing that the person is ready to die for his land. Raoni got his at 15 years old. Now we can see that he is doing everything to keep his land as he has become the international symbol for keeping the rainforest and the culture of the indeginous people.
His influence
He has met some of the most influent people on earth such as the Pope Francis, Jacques Chirak (minister of France a few years ago) and many other influent prime ministers in order to convince them about his cause.
Fridays for future
I learned about Chief Raoni when I went striking in Brussels to ask our political leaders to take action for the climate. He had joined us there and I saw him with us. That day he pronounced a speech where he said :
"I came here because I am worried about the destruction of the forest, of the trees and of the animals. I come here to ask your aid to help protect the forest."
"The spirits are watching us and are wondering why we are killing ourselves."
Raoni pronounced these words at the strike for climate this year. His presence had a lot of meaning because it was giving even more credit to our presence in the manifestations. He has already also risen awareness among us about the indeginous issues
"We all breath the same air.
We all drink the same water.
We all live on a single Earth.
We all ought to protect Her."
his fight
He stands against the current Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro because he doesn't protect the rainforest and therefore the land of the indeginous people. He is an important icon of this fight as his land means a lot to him. The president lets companies use all the land of the Amazon rainforest and he lets them cutting all the trees they want. He doesn't stand with the indeginous people and there is nearly no regulations in the Amazon rainforest. By cutting the trees, the companies destroy their land but it has also an impact on us as the trees are an effective way to fight climate change because it absorbs CO2.
Syméon Verstraete