Indigenous delegation travel down Amazon to World Social Forum
January 23, 2009
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A delegation of one hundred Indigenous leaders and representatives of Indigenous organizations is travelling by ship down the Amazon to the World Social Forum.
The international forum will take place in the Amazonian city of Belem, Brazil, from 27 January to 1 February.
The delegation left the port of Manaus on 20 January and will navigate the world’s largest river for six days. During the trip, delegates will discuss the campaign, ‘Indigenous Peoples in Amazonia: Present and Future of Mankind’, which is to be launched at the World Social Forum.
Two demonstrations are planned along the way to Belem, in the cities of Parintins and Santarém.
According to the Indigenous commission of the World Social Forum, Indigenous participation in this forum will be the strongest ever. 1,500 Indigenous people from Brazil and more than 500 from other countries are already in Belem. Delegates are travelling from all over Brazil, including 50 Guarani who are taking a bus from distant Mato Grosso do Sul.
The coordinator of COIAB, the network of Indigenous organizations in the Amazon, said the delegation will use the World Social Forum to ‘ask for a respectful attitude towards their territories, the right to wellbeing and self–determination and a multinational state'.
