Joy and defiance at Indigenous gathering

Climate concerns prominent as hundreds attend celebration of Amazonian chief's nominal 91st birthday

- Jonathan Watts

During the world's hottest month in more than 100,000 years, Indigenous men, women and children from all over Brazil made their way into one of the last great holdouts of the Amazon rainforest to pay their respects to the most effective Amazon protector of them all, Raoni Metuktire, who has indicated that he may be coming towards the end of his activist days.

The ostensible reason for the gathering at Piaraçu, a village in Mato Grosso state, was Raoni's nominal 91st birthday, though, in truth, like the mightiest trees of the Amazon, nobody is sure exactly how old he is.

There was joy and celebration, but the overriding emotion was anxiety. Brazil's Indigenous people find themselves at an extraordinary juncture of national political opportunity and global climate concern that has made the outside world more willing to listen to their voices, though seemingly still unready to act in their best interests.

It had been hoped that the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, would attend - Raoni attended Lula's inauguration ceremony in Brasília but he was a no-show, citing a medical procedure on his hip.