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Recorded at the
Earth Summit (UNCED),
Rio, Brazil, June 1992
 Antonio:
(English translation) I would like to greet my brother in my own native
tongue, which is called Aymara. My name is Antonio Espinoza Huayllas. I am
an Amauta, originating from the Collosuyo region. Today it is called
Bolivia. From there I come here, to Rio, to this international forum,
bringing with me a greeting to the entire First Nations Peoples. Then my
brother - (greeting in Aymara language). This greeting, in my language,
means that today, this day, for it to be a benefit to all, I mean humanity
as a whole. This is the greeting that I bring from my Aymara culture.
 Konrad:
I want to first start by saying that in my language, I spoke to you in
Wyandot. It’s better known as the Huron, the Huron Nation. Wyandot means
“the ones who inhabit the islands, the Islanders”. Our traditional oral
history says that we come from your land, the North American Indian
people. Indigenous People and our tradition say that when the turtle, the
giant turtle, he merged from the water, we left our land in the south and
we went to inhabit our Turtle Island. My nation went to inhabit the very
heart of the Turtle Island, which is in the Great Lakes. We have a culture
of farmers, we have a culture of people that exchange, that commerce, that
trade among first Nations, other Indigenous Peoples.
Antonio:
(English translation) Very well, in the same manner, we from the Aymara
culture, know, understand and receive strength from nature, energy from
the great star, the sun. We receive this energy that it sent to the native
being. Mother Nature gives us the laws of nature. We gather these laws,
like a great organization who believes it must return to what it was
before, thousands of years ago; this powerful organization, with so much
culture, religion, responsibility, etc. This is what we want to now save,
is it not? Together with you, who to my understanding, are also fruits of
nature.
Konrad:
For me it is always beautiful to hear my others, to hear the people that
speak like you do. You know that shows me that we are right. That shows me
that we are on the right track, as they say. That shows me that what we do
is going to be beneficial for the world, you know. It shows me we are like
beavers. I don’t know if you know beavers, but all beavers, you know, they
have a responsibility to take care of the land and we are like beavers
also. We have a responsibility to take care of the environment. This is
natural to us. It’s in us. I agree with you in that, you know, it’s a
circle, it’s a community, it is a collectivity, that has to be put
forward, instead of the individual mind, you know, what we call the linear
mind, the linear philosophy, the linear ideology, you know. They have
tried, my grandfather, they have tried too much to impose on us this
linear mind, you know, where we would have to forget about, about our
brothers or sisters, even about our fathers and mothers. We would have to
forget about everyone, we would have to build an aggressive mind, a
violent attitude and we would have to reach that goal in direct line. We
would have absolutely to reach that goal before we can succeed in life.
That has destroyed us because we cannot be like that, you know. It’s
impossible, it’s like you would want to take a moose and you would want to
force the moose to become a cow. That has absolutely no place in our
capacity, in our culture, in our vision, in our role, our way of life,
everything. So this is why I understand what you... that it has become a
failure, a total failure. Now we have to go back, we have to stick to the
community value, to the collectivity value, to our Nations.
Antonio:
Antonio: (English translation) Yes, this is the truth for us, because if
you think in the depth of nature, there you will find everything. There we
find it all. From there is born our way of thinking, the way we feel in
our soul, no - in the spirit. Those laws which they have taught us, that
for us is the most sacred, I mean nature. We respect nature in all its
fullness. We, the natives of the world, believe we are part of that
nature, we are nature itself - in such a way that we would never hurt a
river or a lake, or cut a tree without reason. We would not do it so
easily, no.
But now we have discovered that there is, within the system where
capitalism lives, the system of the states, the governments, that they are
accomplices of this situation that they bring us, but they do not see it
this way. This is why I would like to, and have, called the media so that
they may help us dialogue amongst each other, because at least to my way
of thinking we do not need racist positions. We need not take any violent
action. We need no confrontation of any sort. If nature gave us the
intelligence, with this intelligence we could measure and find the
solution to the problems that have been created - no? the ecological
imbalance of the world.
Konrad:
It is true. Our people are all pacific. Our people are always welcoming
the stranger. Everywhere we go we see all our people welcoming the
stranger, with a meal, with a place to sleep, with a shelter. This is
common to all our Indian, so called Indian Nations, First Nations of
America. We are all from the same people also. I believe what our elders
say to us, we have to continue to educate these people; we have to
continue to teach them. We have to continue even if they are racist, even
if they are tough, rough, even if they are violent, even if they are
aggressive in their words, in their manners and everything. We have to
continue to Indianize them. When I was young, I didn’t understand too much
what it meant. My grandmother was saying that to me, we have to continue
to teach them, to teach them how to become more rooted to the land, so
that this way they are going to protect it; they are going to create a
link with the land. It will not be only ego rush attitude. It is going to
become something that they now will care for the land.
You know it is true that these people arrived here as invaders. It is true
that they arrived here, you know, leaving a country that they probably
spoiled or that they were no more able to live on, and they found richness
here, they found order, they found civilizations, they found very, very
highly political developed societies, nations and peoples. They found a
beautiful type of human beings that never, throughout these thousands and
thousands and thousands and dozens of thousands of years, have never
developed war the way it has been developed for example in Europe, in
other parts of the world. So sure we were easy to wipe out, we were easy
to exploit and, in fact, this has happened and this continues to happen.
But the answer is, as you were saying, well my grandfather, is to continue
to Indianize, to have this people to become more and more Indigenous to
the land. This is the only way that we are going to save our land, by
saving these people all together. This is our responsibility. It is quite
a task, because we cry, because we suffer, because we see many of our
people, especially our old people looking at mother earth, to be this
spoiled. We see them cry, you know, but I think there will come a day,
pretty soon, where our knowledge will not only be exploited, but will be
put at the advantage of all human beings and they ask us, I believe.
Antonio:
(English translation) Yes. Something else too. It is also a concern
finding a solution. If we have been, for 500 years oppressed, enslaved,
etc. this isn’t the time for complaints, but instead a time to think
positively. What is the best solution, let’s say. Guilty, there were many.
They have exterminated us. There have been 80 million.... Never in any
world war have this many people been victimized. But I would like to say
it like this, a truth without hatred, without grudges, without wanting to
hurt anyone, such as our religion dictates, but the world must understand
this situation - no? I believe that many elders like myself analyzed and
came to the understanding that Christianity, which they have imposed on us
for 500 years, and thinking even further, the 2000 years of Christianity,
we realize that this era will end. Christianity has not given us the
solution for a better life. It hasn’t panned out. We haven’t found the
solution in Christianity. This is why our culture is stronger than
Christianity, because it is based on a respect for nature and living in
community, in coexistence. This is what me must dialogue with those very
same Christians, with the people of other cultures, so that we may arrive
to an understanding.
Konrad:
Again, this is what we’ve heard from our elders also. You know my bible is
the forest, my church is the forest. My bible is all leaves after the
trees. This is a message that I learnt when I was very, very young. A
message that always remains in my mind now. Religion is not a word that we
use often because there is so much fights, so much struggles all over the
world because of religion, you know. We use spirituality, the word
spirituality because spirituality is the link with the Nature, with the
Great Spirit. It’s a link with all human beings, we have to be spiritual.
Religion, some religions, you know, they will pray for half an hour per
week, sometimes not even, and that is what they consider to be religious,
and that is too few. We have to be spiritual at all times. We have to
purify ourselves, you know. In our own beliefs, in our own ways, as
Indigenous Peoples, we have that, that we can share also with the rest of
the people, of the world, you know.
So many things that we can share and that we are willing to share these
things because we know it is going to cure. We know it’s going to help
other human beings, our brothers and sisters from different, other
nationalities and color and so on, to find a way, to find peace, to find
the solution. Myself, my Nation as you said, so many millions of our
people, of our sisters have died, you know, atomic bombs... arrived very
early in small pox, any European diseases will create epidemics and still
in some of these lands here it happens, you know. So our Nations, our
people, are very fragile against all kinds of different diseases. Like the
one that we were more than 200,000 and within 50 years we became only a
handful of us. A couple of hundreds that were able to survive from that
and this is what my Nation is all about. Many other Nations, major
nations, big, big Nations, big confederations, very highly politically
developed like the Erie Nation, the Tobacco Nation, the Atineawanton
Nation, the Saskwahana Nation, they all disappeared today. There is only
one confederation today that survived: the Iroquois confederation of all
our people. So this is true, that we suffer a lot from religion, from
diseases, from intrusion into our world. I believe that it should set an
example for some of these Nations here in Brazil, that if they are too
much in contact with non-Indigenous people, be they anthropologists, or
ecologists or priests, they are going to feel like this… epidemics, and
they are going to die very fastly. We had to kill priests you know. We had
to kill priests, us and the Iroquois. They are called the St. Martyrs in
Canada.
I was just to say that the first time that I arrived into our school, in
our reserve, the big nun, the first thing that she said to us was: “Now
you have to put yourself on your knees and ask forgiveness, forgiveness,
praise the Lord, ask forgiveness for what you’ve done to those priests.
Your Nation, you were savages, you were barbarous, you didn’t know how to
live and you killed those beautiful, holy priests that were coming to
teach you the good news, and look what you’ve done with that. You’ve
killed the martyrs”. I looked at the nun, and I was on my knees and I
started to cry because it was the first time in my life that I felt
ashamed, that I felt something inside of me that I never felt before and
it was very serious. So I brought it back home and as a chance, I had
older brothers and sisters and they told me not to worry about that. That
was a false history, it was not true history. My father said to me then,
at night I said that to my father, he said: “My son, don’t believe that.
Just pretend that they are true, just pretend for sake of making sure that
you are a good student, that you learn what they teach you, but don’t
believe that. You know our ancestors were good people, and one day,” he
says, “time is the father of truth, one day you are going to write it, the
true history. You are going to allow it that the people of your
generation… you are going to re-write all that. You’re going to repossess
what has been stolen away, what has been taken away from you”.
Antonio:
(English translation) Well, this is the way it is. We are in the right and
we speak the truth. It seems to me that the truth that we seek was sought
long before the usurpers, the intruders came. They have covered our truth,
but the truth comes out again, that does not end.
I wanted more than anything to say that within the truth there are four
values, four philosophical principles, everything we have, our way of
life, without removing spirituality. I very much agree that we should no
longer speak of religion, because it is false, it is much better to speak
of spirituality because we carry that inside - yes? These four values are,
first reciprocity, because we are all a community, in harmony. Reciprocity
has been practiced for thousands of years. Then comes solidarity, because
we are like a family in it, wherever we may be, be it in a town, in an
Aymara Nation, in a Quechua one, in the end we are like one family and
this is why we should practice solidarity. Next, honesty must be
practiced. To have no stains, not to walk like this, but straight, from
this comes honesty. And finally comes responsibility. We, who were born in
a native culture, originating from the world, more so when we are born in
this culture, they teach us these principles. We then learn upon this. We
learn the responsibility that it called “to serve your community” and not
“help yourself to your community”, like those who have taught us evil in
reality. These principles are worth more, much more, than the Ten
Commandments from the Lord’s Law, which they have imposed on us. It is
much stronger and this is why we believe that we will continue to move
forward.
Konrad:
Because it’s so clear what he said, that I understood every point of it.
The reciprocity as we call it, that parallel road, the co-existence, the
coexistence principle. It’s a capacity for our Nations to be able to
continue to practice our way of life. To continue to do what we have to do
as Nations, as peoples. To play our role and for the other Nations to have
the reciprocities, so that we respect also the mutual roads, the two roles
that we have to follow. One should never try to assimilate. One should
never try to integrate. One should never try to have the other becoming
him or her. We need reciprocity. We need mutuality. We need to respect
those two very roles, because they exist. Because we were here first so we
have our way of life, we have our roles. We have our spirituality. Another
person arrives; we don’t want him to become me. We don’t want him to
become us. We want to say to that person, let’s live in reciprocity, let’s
live in mutuality, as co-exist, co-existence principle.
The other principle, the solidarity, is the very circle, as the circle. We
need to have solidarity. We need to have unity. We need to be able,
especially today during the very important days in our struggle, we need
to have unity. We need to speak with one voice and this is also a
principle that we share, also as indigenous people from the North.
Now the honesty, the honesty, this is what we have to recognize as to be
the most fundamental teaching that we receive as young children, as young
people. There is a proverb that says, if you don’t learn how to be honest
on the knees of your mother, you will never be able to be honest. So it
comes from your mother, directly from you mother, from within. Probably
from the womb of you mother, when you’re inside your mother. That is how
important it is to recognize and put that principle of honesty in place,
because without that it’s disorder. Without that it’s tragical.
And the last one, the responsibility, we translate the responsibility as
to be the self-determination capacity. We are responsible people. We know
what we want for ourselves. We know the kind of decisions that our people
want to take. So we are responsible and we want to fulfill our
responsibility. Our responsibility has been taken away from us by force
and imposed by other values. Now we want to repatriate that responsibility
that is ours. It’s a sacred right and we call it the inherent right. The
inherent because it comes from the Creator. It comes from the Creator; it
does not come from Nations, States, Governments. It comes from the
Creator, that is why we say inherent right to self determination, and this
is what we call to be responsible for ourselves.
So your principles, your four principles, they sound in my ear as to be
household. The very four principles that we put in place, that we put
ahead and that we use and utilize and need to continue to utilize and
again, it is a teaching. I learnt a lot tonight because I find that what
we are exchanging together is, is really alike, you know, and this is
great to know. I have a beautiful feeling inside of me.
Antonio:
(English translation) Well, to give hope to those who are on the same
path. Now all this thinking and all this conversation must finally unite
all the communities, First Nations and Indigenous, it must unite us all
with this form of thinking. This is our task, even though it will not be
easy, we will achieve it. Yes, and there is a… I take it as an anecdote.
The bad people, the people that make atomic bombs, the people that in the
name of science, in the name of technology, etc., accumulate much wealth
to destroy other communities, are trying to find life on other planets so
save themselves for when the punishment that they deserve finally comes.
But, the only thing that we want is to lengthen the life of our planet,
even for them. Our desire is right, but if they do not understand this,
our gods will not allow them to save themselves over there. First they
must fall when it all ends. This is what we believe might happen when the
moment comes, and it might be that it happens this way. But for now we
hope they understand, we are asking for dialogue with these evil people.
We can discuss and we can present some solutions to lengthen the life of
the planet.
Konrad:
This is ... I would like to answer also, and exchange with my grandfather,
to tell him that his message of wisdom has been to me, this exchange has
been to me something that I wasn’t expecting. Something that I will
benefit all my life of this conversation that we have. It is like we would
be together, is like there would no be camera, it is like we would just
exchange between you and I, privately. I heard you, I listened to you
very, very deeply and I want to thank you very much for that experience,
that wisdom that you have shared, that you wanted to share with me,
because sometimes in our struggle, we would need to put in place a clause.
A clause that is going to become more and more important in the years that
are going to come. It is a very consent clause, you know. We need to
consent now to any form of development that is going to happen in our
land. We need to consent on all the social, cultural, political,
economical kind of development that has an effect, direct or indirect, on
our people and Nations. We need to consent to those charters that are
drafted here in the United Nations level in our absence. That has to come
to an end.
My last comment, my dear elder, is to recognize what you said to me, that
we need to hold on to our traditions, to hold on to our values. We need to
keep them a secret, secret and sacred also. We need also to involve all
our people. Our leadership is not needed for a happy few, our leadership
means to reach out, to grass root. We need to involve our women as equal
with us; we need, not only say that what we are doing is for youth, but
involve the youth now, involve them into the decision making process. I
think we can do that. I think our culture, I think our traditions are able
to incorporate all our people as it has always been.
I want to finally say that I learnt a lot from you. I want to say that I
will bring back in Canada, in North America, those words that you shared
with me and let us keep on being a full part of the circle all together.
Let us invite other indigenous people to become part of the circle, for
sure, but more importantly, non-indigenous people of the world to be part
of the great circle of life.
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