President of the Federation of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Pará, Puyr Tembé, was the representative of the Amazon region and the indigenous peoples at the meeting that President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva held on Thursday (17) at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 27.  As a member of the Tembé people from the Alto Rio Guamá indigenous land, northeast of Pará, she defends that traditional peoples should be included in political decision making, beyond the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. "We no longer want to be left out. We want to add up to build a much better country," she highlighted.

According to Tembé, it’s necessary to have a "diversity of faces" to have a government that truly represents the Brazilian people and, therefore, it’s necessary that indigenous and other social groups occupy positions in all spheres and that, during Lula's mandate, the movement will be "vigilant" and that, despite being happy with the result of the presidential election, it will always be in a fighting position, demanding whenever necessary. This is because, according to her, the indigenous people have a fundamental role in protecting the forests that needs to be recognized by the whole society. "What happens on the planet reflects on all of us, on all the indigenous peoples, on all humanity", she emphasized.

For the next four years, her expectation is positive. "As indigenous peoples, we are organizing ourselves to be discussing this space of climate change. Thinking, taking proposals to combat this issue of climate change in our state and in Brazil as a whole," she declared.

For Puyr, Janja will also be a representative of the indigenous peoples. At the civil society meeting, the indigenous leader praised the future first lady as "Mother Janja" and said: "Janja, you are a face, a woman who portrays our faces. Keep it up, don't lose that essence. This is the first lady who steps on the ground. Call that Janja comes!"