We began this work in November 2025, shortly after oil exploration was approved in Block 59, at the mouth of the Amazon, one of the most biodiverse and environmentally sensitive areas on the planet. Even then, Oiapoque —in the far north of Brazil, in Amapá, on the border with French Guiana— was beginning to change. Here live 68 Indigenous communities belonging to the Karipuna, Palikur, Galibi-Marworno, and Galibi Kalinã peoples. We visited several communities, where four languages are spoken —in addition to Portuguese— and where spiritual practices and a daily life similar to that of their ancestors are still preserved, in harmony with nature. The lives of children and adolescents flow among rivers, fishing, and the forest, but exploratory drilling brings pollution, biodiversity loss, pressure on territories, the massive arrival of outside workers, increased violence, and social ruptures. In the first days of 2026, a spill of fluids during exploration work in the ocean confirmed the danger: a danger that threatens to accelerate and transform this unique place in the world forever.
