Translator: Vanessa Soneghet Reviewer: Maria Pita
My family were always rural folks.
I’ve always enjoyed being in the rainforest.
My life within the rainforest
was to live with the animals.
And my biggest focus was working with children –
children from the age of four until their teenage years,
and going on to adults.
We began working with the trash in my community.
I starting making people aware of how to collect garbage,
how to sort one type from the other.
So, I tried talking to children
and I starting earning their parents’ trust.
Parents brought their kids to me
and people acknowledge me in the community.
I only studied until eighth grade.
I didn’t have the privilege of completing school.
But today I feel like a teacher
and I teach kids what I know.
In my community, we have a seed collection
when we go into the forest to do the harvesting.
We have a plantation there,
where I came to know a tree called Inga.
It’s a leguminous plant under which we plant all kinds of things.
It’s a plant that helps soil recover fast.
And everything we plant under it
has a good outcome.
In our community, when I went to EMBRAPA,
I learned there that each plant is used in its own place.
But I tried to imitate the way a forest imitates.
I tried to imitate the forest because at EMBRAPA
there were a lot of plants with pests.
And I saw there weren’t any pests in our forest.
So, I tried to plant a variety.
There we have açaí palm, cupu, soursop, andiroba, copaiba,
cumaru, guarana.
And everything there is pest free.
We eat everything natural.
At EMBRAPA, I saw there were lots of poisons, lots of chemicals.
You can’t compare their fruit to ours.
In our community, we only work with organics.
Everything you eat is natural. There are no poisons in our community.
I compare human beings to animals.
Kids are like parrots:
you speak, they listen
and then they pass it on to other kids.
Parrots listen attentively,
then they talk to the other animals.
So I compare kids with them in that sense.
And one has to be patient when dealing with human beings,
one has to show love and affection,
have the greatest care for those kids.
So, with that, I went seeking my knowledge
and fitting everything into place.
My dad says, “The first lesson we want to teach people
must come from our home.”
So, I’m the kind of person who is always observing wherever I go.
I’m a person who observes my house,
and while doing so,
I saw that my wife always likes everything in its place,
everything very neat.
So, I saw that this job I did with kids
had a future, it was going to work.
And today we have a job over there,
with the Chelonians from Uatumã.
When I started, there were 1000 babies.
If you don’t know,
the Chelonians of Uatumã are the Amazon turtles.
We started with a thousand hatchlings,
nowadays we have 25 thousand hatchlings.
And we are repopulating the river which used to have a dam wall
a little way above from our community.
That dam wall busted and ruined the river.
And today we are repopulating the river.
Our situation there is very happy today
because we are managing to live with nature,
to understand nature.
And I have always liked the forest –
for me to teach people about it.
Nowadays, when I talk about the rainforest
to those who live with it, who feel it –
we breathe clean air there.
So, my experience in the rainforest,
is to always be talking to people, teaching kids,
and passing on knowledge to other people.
I have a message to leave here – it’s a very short sentence.
This is how I am:
When I’m in the community, people approach us
and there we talk to them and make them aware,
and I become very happy.
That’s me. If I don’t pass on my message,
my education to other people, I actually feel guilty.
Thank you very much, guys!
(Applause and cheers)
My family were always rural folks.
I’ve always enjoyed being in the rainforest.
My life within the rainforest
was to live with the animals.
And my biggest focus was working with children –
children from the age of four until their teenage years,
and going on to adults.
We began working with the trash in my community.
I starting making people aware of how to collect garbage,
how to sort one type from the other.
So, I tried talking to children
and I starting earning their parents’ trust.
Parents brought their kids to me
and people acknowledge me in the community.
I only studied until eighth grade.
I didn’t have the privilege of completing school.
But today I feel like a teacher
and I teach kids what I know.
In my community, we have a seed collection
when we go into the forest to do the harvesting.
We have a plantation there,
where I came to know a tree called Inga.
It’s a leguminous plant under which we plant all kinds of things.
It’s a plant that helps soil recover fast.
And everything we plant under it
has a good outcome.
In our community, when I went to EMBRAPA,
I learned there that each plant is used in its own place.
But I tried to imitate the way a forest imitates.
I tried to imitate the forest because at EMBRAPA
there were a lot of plants with pests.
And I saw there weren’t any pests in our forest.
So, I tried to plant a variety.
There we have açaí palm, cupu, soursop, andiroba, copaiba,
cumaru, guarana.
And everything there is pest free.
We eat everything natural.
At EMBRAPA, I saw there were lots of poisons, lots of chemicals.
You can’t compare their fruit to ours.
In our community, we only work with organics.
Everything you eat is natural. There are no poisons in our community.
I compare human beings to animals.
Kids are like parrots:
you speak, they listen
and then they pass it on to other kids.
Parrots listen attentively,
then they talk to the other animals.
So I compare kids with them in that sense.
And one has to be patient when dealing with human beings,
one has to show love and affection,
have the greatest care for those kids.
So, with that, I went seeking my knowledge
and fitting everything into place.
My dad says, “The first lesson we want to teach people
must come from our home.”
So, I’m the kind of person who is always observing wherever I go.
I’m a person who observes my house,
and while doing so,
I saw that my wife always likes everything in its place,
everything very neat.
So, I saw that this job I did with kids
had a future, it was going to work.
And today we have a job over there,
with the Chelonians from Uatumã.
When I started, there were 1000 babies.
If you don’t know,
the Chelonians of Uatumã are the Amazon turtles.
We started with a thousand hatchlings,
nowadays we have 25 thousand hatchlings.
And we are repopulating the river which used to have a dam wall
a little way above from our community.
That dam wall busted and ruined the river.
And today we are repopulating the river.
Our situation there is very happy today
because we are managing to live with nature,
to understand nature.
And I have always liked the forest –
for me to teach people about it.
Nowadays, when I talk about the rainforest
to those who live with it, who feel it –
we breathe clean air there.
So, my experience in the rainforest,
is to always be talking to people, teaching kids,
and passing on knowledge to other people.
I have a message to leave here – it’s a very short sentence.
This is how I am:
When I’m in the community, people approach us
and there we talk to them and make them aware,
and I become very happy.
That’s me. If I don’t pass on my message,
my education to other people, I actually feel guilty.
Thank you very much, guys!
(Applause and cheers)
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