Our new Yawa #TOGETHER collection is about so much more than the jewellery itself. These beautifully natural, zero waste bracelets and necklaces represent an urgent call to action for us all to protect the land rights of the most important custodians of planet Earth: Indigenous peoples.

We’ve partnered with the Yawanawá community in Brazil on this project to raise awareness about the vital issues that Indigenous peoples currently face, while at the same time fundraising for the community to allow them to continue to protect the Amazon rainforest, which they call home. Indigenous peoples like the Yawanawá represent just 5% of the global population and yet they protect over 82% of our remaining biodiversity. They offer nature-based solutions to climate change and often lead the charge against oil companies and fossil fuel polluters, but are increasingly losing their natural resources, cultures and lands.

We have already been able to build a dedicated Rainforest Workshop and Atelier thanks to the money raised from our Kickstarter campaign last year. By offering long-term training and employment to the Yawanawá, the community can stay in their ancestral home to work in harmony with nature and protect it from the threats posed by the Brazilian government. This isn’t an empty threat. Violence and intimidation happens regularly to many of the communities in the region. Plus the country’s president Jair Bolsonaro has cut back environmental enforcement in the Amazon, defunded the government’s Indigenous protection agency and been outspoken about his wishes to mine the Amazon since he was elected in 2018. He is even using the war in Ukraine as a false pretext to rush through a bill that would allow mining for potash - a fertiliser that Russia has withdrawn supplies of - on Indigenous lands.

We have already been able to build a dedicated Rainforest Workshop and Atelier thanks to the money raised from our Kickstarter campaign last year. By offering long-term training and employment to the Yawanawá, the community can stay in their ancestral home to work in harmony with nature and protect it from the threats posed by the Brazilian government. This isn’t an empty threat. Violence and intimidation happens regularly to many of the communities in the region. Plus the country’s president Jair Bolsonaro has cut back environmental enforcement in the Amazon, defunded the government’s Indigenous protection agency and been outspoken about his wishes to mine the Amazon since he was elected in 2018. He is even using the war in Ukraine as a false pretext to rush through a bill that would allow mining for potash - a fertiliser that Russia has withdrawn supplies of - on Indigenous lands.

The Amazon rainforest might seem far removed from your day-to-day life, but as one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, it is essential that we protect it and the people who live there from exploitation. Without the Amazon rainforest, life on Earth as we know it would cease to exist. Its trees absorb around 2.2 billion tons of carbon per year; losing that would lead to climate disaster, and that affects all of us, wherever we live. 

So other than providing a sustainable livelihood for the Yawanawá, how does our Yawa #TOGETHER collection help? By wearing one of our Yawa Bands or Yawa Necklaces, which are made from the seeds of açaí berries harvested by the community, you will be standing in solidarity with Indigenous peoples all over the world. Use your jewellery as a talking point; tell people who admire your Yawa Band or Necklace about the threat to Indigenous land rights, or give one as a gift to spread awareness. Post a picture of you wearing your Yawa jewellery on social media and speak about the issues to your followers. Do these things to help us protect the Yawanawá and Indigenous peoples all over the world, because without them, we cannot safeguard the future of our planet.

Equip yourself with more information and inspiration about the project and the Yawanawá in our dedicated articles and video below.