Brazil's new President, Lula da Silva, who began his third presidential term on January 1^st, promised during his campaign to become an 'environmental president'. He thus appointed qualified candidates to the presidential cabinet who could deal with environmental tasks such as restoring devastated Amazon forests and eliminating illegal logging. Among them, the world is paying keen attention to Sonia Guajajara, an indigenous Brazilian environmental activist, who is famously identified as 'Indigenous Warrior Woman.” Let's find out about Sonia Guajajara–Brazil's first indigenous minister–who is so deep into indigenous culture and nature conservation that she attends public events with rich makeup and colorful accessories unique to indigenous people.

Born on March 6^th 1972 in Araiboia Indigenous Land, Brazil, Sonia Guajajara was raised under illiterate parents and had to start working only a decade after her birth. She found herself to be interested in politics from a very young age and wanted to inform the world about the history and the lives of Indigenous people. She insisted that her ethnicity and beliefs are intertwined with nature: “For us, life is inseparable from nature,” she said in an interview with Believe Earth. She, therefore, opposes any modern society’s movement that violates Indigenous people’s rights and destroys their territory for the sake of environment. Indigenous people pursue self-sufficient lives, and enjoy clean rivers, without worrying about surplus, which she believes, is the lifestyle that protects the Earth and everyone on it, including urban residents. Her rigid belief and steady effort caught the attention of FUNAI, the Brazilian government conservation agency which protects Indigenous people’s lives, inviting her to Minas Gerais. Hence, she left her home at the age of 15 for early childhood education, and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the State University of Maranhão and the Federal University of Bahia, respectively. After graduation, she worked in various occupations, such as education and nursing, and served as the leader of the Association of Indigenous People of Brazil (APIB), an organization representing about 300 Indigenous peoples in Brazil. Her conviction stayed firm regardless of her occupation; she preserved rural areas from enterprises seeking exploitation, and demonstrated her affection for Indigenous people by advocating protective measures for disease-prone residents amid the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. Winning countless awards, including presidential to international recognition, and receiving support from Brazilians, she ran in the 2018 Brazilian presidential election. Ultimately, this January 1^st, she was appointed Minister of Indigenous Affairs, credited with the protection of the Amazon and Indigenous Peoples.

“The main flags will be the defense of the Amazon and Atlantic Forest, the defense of the rights of minorities, respect for diversity and plurality and the reconstruction of democracy in Brazil, which has been weakened in the last four years", Guajajara said in her inaugural address. She expressed her aspiration for the Amazon and democracy of the country, which was in jeopardy under the previous presidential administration, to be renewed. Chung-Ang Herald will support Guajajara, who never gives up and keeps trying to create an eco-friendly and democratic Brazil.