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Five Amazon voices: the claim for existence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2022

Alice Maria Corrêa Medina Open the ORCID record for Alice Maria Corrêa Medina [Opens in a new window]
Alice Maria Corrêa Medina*
Affiliation:
Universidade de Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil
*
E-mail: licinhamedina@gmail.com
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Abstract

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Type
Communication
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 38 , Special Issue 3-4: Post-qualitative inquiry: Theory and practice in environmental education , September 2022 , pp. 211 - 213
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Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - SA
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), which permits re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is used to distribute the re-used or adapted article and the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

At the table in the forest
every sprout from the soil
must converse so as to claim
the right to spring.
Hark to the forest’s cry.
It is hopeless to hush
the warning to the living
that life is doomed.
Many were the gestures
summoning for attention
from the forest embodied
by male and female fighters
for the nature of life
with no gag or torture.
In unison, trees
rise and claim
the roots of unbearable tales
written in pain and memories.
Let us introduce ourselves.
I am Maçaranduba from the soil,
the frame of many homes.
I am Parapará,
the one to nourish air
and promote the existence
of all that moves over the land.
If you don’t change your values
you will have nowhere to tread.
The recollections of this place,
where only rumours are left
about doomed lives
unknown to life
from the remaining life
that is leftover.
As a tall Cajuaçu,
I also announce
my nuts, my eyes
as witnesses.
I am son of the great Amazon forest
breeding diversity.
I am Tatajuba of the forest.
Chainsaws will not silence this tree.
I embody nature
as part of me
as it becomes this place.
I am the last to speak.
Accepted by the jungle
and as an Andiroba being born,
I am here to request
the right to live.
I am here to speak about
what no one can deny,
Nature has its rights.
We gather to alert
while time writes history
as a closing movement.
that the rights over life on Earth
are vital to claim.
Those who lead the planet
embrace all nature
and be embraced by it.
Assure its rights,
save it for the sake of life.

Academic Exegesis

The poem represents the voices of five native trees from the Amazon rainforest, as they remember the participation of women and men who have fought for the forest. It highlights the importance of environmental diversity and the biome for the creation and maintenance of life. In the poem, the trees tell their stories and memories, while they denounce a future, which threatens the different forms of life on Earth. In the end, the main characters request the right to live to the rulers of the planet. The voices, which rise from the forest as an ultimate hope, emerge with the belief, that somehow, they will be heard before the Amazon forest and the planet are silenced.

Acknowledgements

None.

Conflicts of Interest

None.

Financial Support

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Ethical Standard

None.

Alice Maria Corrêa Medina is teacher at the University of Brasilia (UnB) — Brazil, at the Faculty of Physical Education. It currently is part of the UnB Graduate Program in Education, in the Environmental Education and Rural Education Research Line. His doctorate was in the area of Health Sciences at UnB. She has a postdoctoral degree in Social Sciences (PUC/SP), where she conducted a survey at a rural school, related to environmental education and with this work received the OMEP (2012) award and published a book. She has a postdoctoral degree in Education (UnB/DF) with a published and postdoctoral book in Education at the University of Barcelona-Spain. Alice believes that production is urgently urgent from new senses about life from the identification and recognition of the incorporated nature that is in some way in all of us. It is dedicated to studies and research related to the body and, especially the environmental incorporation, referring to the Relational Paradigm of Life. Current research is based on the following topics: body and senses production; environmental incorporation and the Relational Paradigm of Life.