Pode o subalterno (indígena) falar (no IPCC)?

Indigenous intellectuals have been called upon to contribute to environmental debates in a way that is unprecedented in Brazil and on the international stage. A series of recent events highlights the growing momentum surrounding this issue. In November 2024, in Cali, Colombia, Brazilian indigenous leaders released a manifesto demanding the co-presidency of COP30, the climate conference to be held in Belém. In March 2025, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced its plans for organizing the work on its upcoming reports, which include holding a workshop on incorporating indigenous knowledge into the panel’s work. Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), also affiliated with the UN, relaxed the criteria used to select information sources for its analyses a few years ago, opening the door to the use of materials not subject to peer review—precisely to include materials on indigenous knowledge. In May 2025, IPBES will hold a workshop in the Philippines to discuss the challenges of linking indigenous knowledge to ecosystem modeling.

However, despite the progress that appears to be taking place in this field, there remains a sense among most of the indigenous authors and leaders participating in these discussions that their voices are not truly being heard. Conceptually speaking, the environmental debate is structured around ideas that are foreign to—and ultimately incompatible with—most indigenous philosophies in Brazil. The prominent role given to Indigenous thinkers in this arena often constitutes what Bruce Albert has termed “productive misunderstandings”: they help the environmental cause, but without non-Indigenous actors being able to grasp the nuances of Indigenous ways of life and philosophies. Drawing on some of the ideas from Gayatri Spivak’s famous essay, “Can the Subaltern Speak?,” this presentation will discuss the challenges of integrating Indigenous authors and leaders into contemporary efforts at environmental governance.