“We have ideas to postpone the end of the world.”
“May our utopia be a future on earth. Thank you.”
-Txai Suruí, Full speech at COP26
KEEP SCROLLING DOWN TO READ SHORT AND LONG EXPLANATIONS
IN SHORT:
UPRIGHT: Judgement, a call from within, rise to the occasion.
REVERSED: Self-doubt, inner critic, ignoring calls from outside.
IN DEPTH:
The Judgement card shows a chaotic scene: indigenous Brazilian youth from the tribal northern forests, descend into remote roads. They ambush the route of the trespassers, the private security forces, the miners, the truckers. They point and release their arrows and voices with precision. This generation has been gifted the ability to move between radically different worlds. They carry with them messages crucial the fate of the planet. As their procession takes them closer and closer to the neighboring towns they adorn themselves in body paint, traditional garb and surgical masks. They know contact with the outside requires self-protection.
The young land protectors move with the profound force of someone fighting for their life. Judgement is not a protest, it is not a concept or proposal for revolution— it is shrewd survival mechanism. Judgement is the frontline of change. Judgment is a wake up call. They carry a message for this urgent moment right now: “we must listen to the stars, the moon, the wind the animals and the trees.(sic.)… The earth is speaking. She tells us that we have no more time.” The judgement card, looks directly at the us and asks us to recognize the clear and present crisis, and see what can we can carry from our pasts to save our future.
The Judgement Card looks to the courage of a generation of indigenous climate activism in Brazil’s Amazon rain forests and youth leaders like Txai Suruí. On opening day at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), she issued a grave warning to world leaders, reminding them their proposed solutions have been built on denial of the reality all around us. The timelines for carbon neutrality’s inadequate, “It’s not 2030 or 2050. It’s now.” Txai Suruí was born of the Suruí people in Rondônia, Brazil, she has been continued the path of courage foraged by her parents before her. She is the daughter and pupil of the great chief Almir Suruí and, her mother the legendary activist Ivaneide Suruí, who are best known for their work fighting deforestation in the Amazon. Her best-friend was murdered for trying to protect the forests. Her conviction is forged in the hardship lived consequences of global climate policy.
Rondônia is one of Brazil’s northern states most deeply affected by the climate crisis. A confluence of agricultural and road development, cattle ranching, timber extraction, and mining, have diminished life-sustaining biodiversity and contributed to the rivers to running dry. Although there are still thriving enclaves of the forest, it’s become evident that global change is needed to protect this place—this place that naturally absorbs greenhouse gases, that stabilizes climate, that houses incredible amounts of plants and wildlife, and sends nourishing rainfall all around the planet—this place she calls home.
AT LENGTH:
The Judgement Card looks to the courage of a generation of indigenous climate activism in Brazil’s Amazon rain forests and youth leaders like Txai Suruí. On opening day at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), she issued a grave warning to world leaders, reminding them their proposed solutions have been built on denial of the reality all around us. The timelines for carbon neutrality’s inadequate, “It’s not 2030 or 2050. It’s now.” Txai Suruí was born of the Suruí people in Rondônia, Brazil, she has been continued the path of courage foraged by her parents before her. She is the daughter and pupil of the great chief Almir Suruí and, her mother the legendary activist Ivaneide Suruí, who are best known for their work fighting deforestation in the Amazon. Her best-friend was murdered for trying to protect the forests. Her conviction is forged in the hardship lived consequences of global climate policy.
Rondônia is one of Brazil’s northern states most deeply affected by the climate crisis. A confluence of agricultural and road development, cattle ranching, timber extraction, and mining, have diminished life-sustaining biodiversity and contributed to the rivers to running dry. Although there are still thriving enclaves of the forest, it’s become evident that global change is needed to protect this place—this place that naturally absorbs greenhouse gases, that stabilizes climate, that houses incredible amounts of plants and wildlife, and sends nourishing rainfall all around the planet—this place she calls home.
FURTHER READING:
-Txai Suruí, Full speech at COP26
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