Alessandra Korap Munduruku is a Munduruku Indigenous woman leader from Indigenous Reserve Praia do Índio in the Brazilian Amazon. She is a member of Pariri, a local Munduruku association, as well as the Munduruku Wakoborûn Women’s Association. In 2020, Alessandra won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for her work defending the culture, livelihoods and rights of Indigenous peoples in Brazil.
Alessandra Korap Munduruku is a Munduruku Indigenous woman leader from Indigenous Reserve Praia do Índio in the Brazilian Amazon. She is a member of Pariri, a local Munduruku association, as well as the Munduruku Wakoborûn Women’s Association. In 2020, Alessandra won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for her work defending the culture, livelihoods and rights of Indigenous peoples in Brazil.
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has named Alessandra Korap Munduruku the winner of its 2020 Human Rights Award for her work defending the culture, livelihoods, and rights of Indigenous peoples in Brazil.
Indigenous peoples, including Alessandra’s Munduruku community, have faced tremendous challenges in Brazil in recent years—from gold miners and loggers illegally invading and exploiting Indigenous territories; to widespread fires in the Amazon; and an increased risk to the coronavirus; not to mention a combative president who’s proactively removed protections for Indigenous tribes and insulted them on numerous occasions.
As one of the key leaders and organizers of the Munduruku people, Alessandra has fought to stop construction projects and illegal mining that are infringing upon Munduruku territory, garnering international attention and support. She’s advocated for the demarcation of Indigenous lands and for Indigenous communities to be consulted on decisions that affect their territories. Alessandra has also played an important role in advancing the leadership of women in the Munduruku community and among other Indigenous tribes in Brazil through her involvement in the Wakoborûn Indigenous Women’s Association and the Pariri Indigenous Association.
On her first trip to the most indigenous city in Brazil - São Gabriel da Cachoeira - Alessandra Korap Munduruku was amazed by the beauty of the Rio Negro, a river that is still alive and clean in the Amazon! Differently from your Tapajós, harmed by illegal mining with its waters contaminated by mercury, Negro still resists and its hydrographic basin of black waters is considered the largest preserved wetland on the planet. However, Alessandra brought a wake-up call to the 23 indigenous peoples of the region: take care of your territories, don't let the invaders divide them and corrupt them with false promises.
What is wealth? Wealth is a clean river, its culture, its dances, its rituals, its traditional paintings... Reflections on indigenous time and white time, on ancestry and respect for the territory. All of this can be found in these almost 60 minutes of frank and inspiring conversation with the leader Alessandra Korap, who participated in the 1st Political Training Workshop for indigenous leaders of the Rio Negro, held by ISA, Foirn and the Wayuri Network of Indigenous Communicators. The interview was conducted by Adelson Ribeiro Tukano, Claudia Ferraz Wanano, from the Wayuri Network and Juliana Radler, ISA socio-environmental policy coordinator, on April 28, 2022, at the ISA library in São Gabriel da Cachoeira/AM. Watch the video, courtesy of Foirn via YouTube.
Kerry Kennedy:
Alessandra: know that my father would be standing alongside you in this fight for fundamental dignity. You keep Robert Kennedy’s legacy alive in every vigil, in every lawsuit, in every march and in every victory. Congratulations!
Alongside my dear friend John Kerry, I had the privilege last night of presenting the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to our 37th laureate, Alessandra Korap Munduruku. She is a Mighty Woman who has dedicated her life to vocalizing and defending the rights of her people in the Brazilian Amazon.
Watch the full ceremony here:
Alessandra Korap, leader of the Munduruku people, did not go to Katowice, Poland, in 2018, to participate in the 24th UN Climate Conference (COP-24), but sent her message to national and international authorities through a video recorded in the Sawré Muybu village, in the Middle Tapajós, in Pará. In addition to the threats not to demarcate indigenous lands, the new government has not yet resolved the fate of Funai, which should remain in the Ministry of Justice. “We are not wanting anything from anyone. We're just wanting what's ours. Our rights. The Constitution says that the government has a duty to demarcate our territory”, concludes Alessandra.
Keynote speech by Alessandra Korap Munduruku, human rights activist and leader of the Indigenous Munduruku community in Brazil for the opening of CULTURESCAPES 2021 Amazonia.
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Alessandra Munduruku spoke at the 2019 Global Climate Strike and presented the Munduruku Consultation Protocol to the European Parliament, tabling complaints about rights violations faced by indigenous peoples in Brazil. While in Berlin, the Brazilian Indigenous leader told Mongabay about the on-the-ground impacts of agribusiness expansion and infrastructure development in the Amazon.