Today, August 9, the international community commemorates the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, a date that invites us to look with gratitude, respect and commitment to the more than 390 nationalities and indigenous peoples who inhabit the AmazonThey are ancient guardians of the planet’s most vital biome, wise guardians of the Common Home, and bearers of a spirituality that connects deeply with life, the earth, and the Creator.
From the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), in communion with the Panamazon Ecclesiastical Network (REPAM), the Amazonian Bilingual Intercultural Education Network (REIBA) and the Amazonian University Program (PUAM) we raise our voices to recognize their dignity, make their struggles visible, and reaffirm our evangelical and ecclesial commitment to walk together, in a synodal spirit, with and from the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.
The Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon: Identity, Resistance, and Living Memory
Amazonian indigenous peoples are not “vulnerable populations” in a passive sense. They are protagonists of their story, defenders of their territories, of their right to exist as distinct peoples, with their own language, worldview, social organization and spirituality. They are peoples with ancestral wisdom, which offer an alternative vision of development, focused on good living, harmony with nature and community life.
Faced with the multiple threats they face—such as rampant extractivism, deforestation, river pollution, drug trafficking, territorial dispossession, the criminalization of leaders, and institutional neglect—Indigenous peoples continue to resist with dignity, forging networks of solidarity, recovering their culture, and demanding justice.
Persistent challenges: land, life and rights
The challenges are multiple and urgent:
- Access to and defense of the territory remains a priority. Many villages live without collective title or face constant invasions by illegal actors.
- The right to intercultural education and health is far from guaranteed in many places in the Amazon.
- Violence and criminalization of leaders and defenders of the territory has increased in the last decade.
- The transmission of indigenous languages and the strengthening of ancestral cultures requires structural support and state respect.
- Participation in political and ecclesiastical decision-making spaces is still far from being equitable.
A hope that springs from the roots
Despite the challenges,hope continues to sprout from the indigenous peoples themselves. The revitalization of languages, the strengthening of indigenous women as leaders, the regional articulation of organizations, and the creation of ecclesial networks with an indigenous face, are concrete signs that the Amazon lives and beats strongly.
From CEAMA, REPAM, REIBA and PUAM we firmly believe in a Church with an indigenous and Amazonian face, which not only accompanies, but also allows itself to be challenged and transformed by the people. We are committed to an intercultural and contextualized training, with the promotion of indigenous ministries, with the defense of human rights and land rights, and with the construction of paths of true synodality, where indigenous voices are at the center and not on the periphery.
Listen, defend, walk together
On this day, we renew Pope Francis’ call toDear Amazon, when he dreams of an Amazon that fights for the rights of the poorest, where indigenous cultures can flourish, and where theChurch is incarnated in the life of the people.
May this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples encourage us to listen with your heart, defend bravely, and walk together towards a just, intercultural, spiritual and living Amazon.