“I know what it is like to lose land. I am from a transmigration village. We cannot let this happen again or there will be no more Saamaka people. We will be like ghosts.”
Silvi Adjako (sill-vee ahd-jok-oh)
subsistence and market farmer
QUOTE CONTEXT: “Our land and the forest is everything for us. It’s our life. What the Chinese did (logging our land) threatens our future, the future of all Saamaka people. Our descendants will face enormous problems because of this.”
QUOTE QUESTION: Who among your People knows what its like to lose land?
IMAGE CONTEXT: Silvi Adjako whose gardens were destroyed by the Chinese loggers, later said, “If you saw what they did, it would make you cry!”
IMAGE QUESTION: What land do you steward?
MEDIA LITERACY CONTEXT: The quote is from testimony before an international court. The photo is from an NGO website.
MEDIA LITERACY QUESTION: How does word of your victories get to the outside world?
READ SILVI ADJAKO’S AFFIDAVIT FOR THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS: https://www.forestpeoples.org
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