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RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - Bishop Roque Paloschi of Porto Velho, Brazil, recalls attending a meeting about development in the Amazonian state of Roraima, home of the indigenous Yanomami people, at which a government official commented that indigenous people were very poor.
Davi Kopenawa, a Yanomami leader and shaman, stood up and replied, We are not poor. We have the entire forest. We do not oppose development, but my question for you, ladies and gentlemen, is what kind of development is it that destroys nature and poisons the land and the water to concentrate profit in the hands of a few . . .
Now Kopenawa has become the first Indigenous leader elected to the century-old Brazilian Academy of Sciences. We would like to congratulate the academy, which had the courage to elect a member of the original peoples of Brazil, Paloschi, who is president of the Brazilian bishops Indigenous Missionary Council, told EarthBeat. It s good that the academy has recognized the ancestral wisdom of indigenous peoples, especially at this time, when humanity is experiencing a socio-environmental crisis that is unprecedented in history, the planet is sick, and Indigenous peoples are the teachers who teach us to have a harmonious and respectful relationship with all of creation, he said.