Yakoana – The Voice of Indigenous Peoples, is documentary film about the First World Conference of Indigenous Peoples, which took place in the jungles of Brazil in the summer of 1992.
Bringing together nearly 1000 representatives from 92 Indigenous Nations around the world, the conference was organized in lieu of United Nations Earth Summit, which took place on week after the conference, in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.
The Earth summit was attended by leaders from all major industrial States to discuss the world’s growing environmental crisis – however, only one indigenous representative was permitted to speak. The participants of indigenous conference chose Marcos Terena, who founded the first indigenous political movement in Brazil in the 1970s, to represent them.
The United Nations gave Marcos five minutes to speak. It is said, however, that in those five minutes Terena broke 500 years of silence.
In Yakoana, you will hear some of the message that Terena delivered to the UN Summit, and learn about the histories, cultures, and struggles of the World’s Indigenous People.
‘We who believe are most familiar with nature … you must become our allies. Do not fear us because the future of the Indians is your future too. And it is also the future of the planet.” – Marcos Terena.
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