A project to listen to leaders from indigenous and local communities, connecting their wisdom globally, as the stingless bees are connected to each other.

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Meli is inspired by bees. Particularly the stingless meliponini bees native to all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Indigenous wisdom connect us with these bees and we have much to learn with them.

With the project Bees & the World, lessons for Thriving International Cooperation, we listened to multiple indigenous and local leaders who, just like the bees, support both their community and their environment.

On July 25th, the final call of this project will happen in a hybrid event, online and in Space Lab, Essen, Germany. Jonas and Flay Guajajara will share about the Guajajara Honey Party, as we celebrate the inspiration of bees in our work. Register to participate: https://forms.office.com/r/3XLaCnR8CV?origin=QRCode

During the multiple events, Petra Borgmann Durrie made multiple visualisations sensing the conversations, as shared bellow:

March 13th, 2025

In Bonn, Germany, Arukapé Suruí brought the perspective of how meliponiculture supports his community in face of environmental crimes, in the Amazonian Arc of Deforestation. Indigenous leadership supports each other to live in harmony with nature.

March 15th, 2025

Arukapé Suruí and Jonas Guajajara share about the threats they face in front of the disrespect of laws, and how indigenous roots the solutions they build to protect their teritories.

April 25th, 2025

Dinayana Tabajara presents her experience at the Free Land Camp, a movement where multiple indigenous leaders from Brazil come together in Brasília to claim for their rights. We can evolve out of trauma.

May 2nd, 2025

Minerva, Nahua lawyer, brings the perspective of indigenous leaders from Mexico. The conversation with other indigenous leaders, as Romulo Omágua, showed how channels like the community radio are globally used for education. The power of work bringing change was strongly sensed.

May 9th, 2025

Damian, a youth Zapoteca leader and lawyer, brought structural questions about how leaders from indigenous and local communities identify themselves, with the topic “Nation, ethnicity, people and community”. The resonance within multiple other indigenous leaders from across the world (Peru, Ecuador, Tanzania, etc.), as Kowawa Apurinã, has shown the importance of these topics globally.

May 16th, 2025

Jonas Guajajara reflected on how to use Technology for Good, particularly with the example of the peer to peer app developed in partnership between Meli and P2Panda, to collect information on stingless bees. Orlando, from Alto Solimões, share the need of the app. The fear of losing ownership of their knowledge is outgrown by their claim for autonomy. Songs are used for sharing knowledge.

May 30th, 2025

Moment to listen to stories shared by indigenous women. Marciane, Kokama, and Gabriela, Zapoteca, shared their stories that thought us much more than what the words said. Baths in Amazonian plants and in Mexican rivers. Fruits that are medicine. The mysterious power of plants and how stories share knowledge.

June 13th, 2025

Glória shared about the indigenous reality in Ecuador and how their wisdom connects plants to medicine, health, spirituality and motherhood. Daniel Pereira learnt from hear and now uses his translation work to connect Ecuadorian nations globally. Multiple species of plants are part of the communities’ daily life.

June 27th, 2025

Festivities. A human need. Cynthia shared about the reality in Maranhão and how the Amazonian Ox-Party connects Indigenous, Afro-Brazilian and catholic traditions together. Multiple indigenous and non-indigenous leaders resonated with the festivities and shared about their realities. African leaders were particularly interested in the connection between Africa and the Americas.

July 18th, 2025

A workshop on meliponiculture in Alto Solimões river, an Amazonian region with gigantic diversity of bees. Multiple leaders from indigenous and local communities, such as Tikuna, Omágua, Kokama and Quilombolas (Afrobrazilian traditional communities), shared about the 5 days long workshop facilitated by William Bercê. A river of teamwork, cooperation, diversity, connection, resilience, etc., was sensed.