Luciano Coutinho Paulino SJ and Pedro Walpole SJ
Around Belém, Pará, Brazil where COP30 is being held, communities that care for their land are meeting on concerns also tackled in the UN climate summit. But these communities are not listened to in the expanding world of COP that appears like a visiting circus in the city, with all its buses, posters, and greenwashing of Parque da Cidade (City Park), a new urban park built to host the COP30 conference center.
There are 20 different communities that networked together in support of each other and in calling for care, healing, and growth. One of these communities is Sitio Ossâyn within the larger Território Quilombola do Abacatal (Quilombola Territory of Abacatal), on the south side of the municipality of Ananindeua. This used to be a very isolated area where a Quilombo community was started by West African slaves who escaped some 300 years ago and established independent communities.
In the photo above, Vanusa Cardoso, social scientist and spiritual and political leader of the Abacatal territory welcomes visitors with blessings of health at the entrance to the Comunidade Quilombola do Abacatal.
The community sustained a knowledge of the different herbs and plants in the area with health and healing properties in the context of their Afro-Brazilian culture that cares. The caring naturally extends to the land, keeping the forest and working with the swamp areas around. Everything has a place in this understanding of relations and the community knows how it is placed and its role in keeping a balance.
For the hundred or so families living here, relations are circular – caring for each other as they maintain their gardens outside of the medicinal herbs, trees, and their basic food. Dominant is the growing of açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea), one of the staple foods for the community.
Local networking and accompaniment involve these organizations: the Centro Alternativo de Cultura, Observatório Nacional de Justiça Socioambiental Luciano Mendes de Almeida (OLMA), Fondazione Marcello Candia, and Projeto Confluências do Cuidado.
Community feelings and continuity with the land
Community welcome and explanations strengthen the relations with a blessing using herbal waters. There were several sharings amongst those who gathered, expressing their feelings as they slow down and listen to themselves.
Care for the care-er is crucial and there is a need to believe in oneself and in God’s accompaniment. There is a need to know the seasons and experience the growing on the land. There is a need to recognize that all are blessed and must continue to seek healing from a world that does not care and only exploits which was made evident in COP, where in their own Belém, they have no voice, the community says.
Letter from Nature – Ancestral Mission of the Abacatal Quilombo (with Instituto Mbaraká Òkúta)
“We, daughters and sons of the land, waters, and winds who inhabit the Quilombo do Abacatal, raise this Letter from Nature as an ancestral calling and a living mission. Our words spring from the soil wet with memories, from roots that traverse time and sustain the existence of a people who have learned to live in communion with the forest, the rivers, and the spirit of Mother Earth. Abacatal is body-territory, it is home and it is sacred.
Here, each tree is the guardian of a story; each spring sings the name of those who came before; each falling leaf announces the cycle of life that never breaks. Our ancestry teaches us that nature is not a resource, it is part of us. It is the womb that generates us, the food that sustains us, the shelter that welcomes us, and the mirror that reflects our own existence. We therefore assume the mission of protecting what protects us.
We are guardians of knowledge that cannot be contained in books, but flourishes in collective care, in sharing, and in respect for life in all its forms. We believe that restoring nature is restoring the human spirit, healing historical wounds, and replanting possible futures for the next generations. Inspired by the strength of our ancestors and the voice of the matriarchs who keep the flame of resistance alive, we reaffirm our commitment to Quilombola Well-being, where life flourishes with dignity, freedom, and humanitarian purpose…
On this mission, guided by the wisdom of the ancients and the hope of those yet to come, our steps come from afar, and nature walks with us.
What power do these people have?
The people in these communities have spirit and integrity. They live out the grit of life, they love their children and the land that keeps them all alive with respondent care and accompaniment. These stories are deeply human and connect with those who will open their arms and hold hands as society moves forward.
The COP30 in Brazil did not achieve much for the people on the land and they continue to struggle in the face of an adversity that does not support them but follows the path of economic development. These local communities hoped that COP30 would open new spaces for their participation locally while allowing their story and message to be heard more broadly. However, the COP process is a very weak “democracy” and is already overstressed with political fighting and the inability to hear others in need.
These communities will continue to life their life and remain grateful that they have each other for the moment the land that is their life and hopeful of a more sharing-caring society in the future.
