Tuira Kayapo is an indigenous Elder Mama Warrior who showed the world what happens when Women take charge of their Power. She walked into the 1989 Altamira Gathering in Brasil against the construction of Dams in the Xingu, in her war paint, naked and carrying a large machete. She then walked up to the President of Brasil’s Light holding Company Petrobras and running the blade of her machete three times over his cheeks, proclaimed his act on her people and on the entire Amazon as an act of war. She then stated in Kayapo “You are a liar – We do not need electricity. Electricity is not going to give us our food. We need our rivers to flow freely: our future depends on it. We need our jungles for hunting and gathering. We do not need your dam.”
Everyone stood in absolute awe at her audacity, especially the President of Petrobras who looked quite afraid…
