Operation Amazonia – Empower, Collaborate, Unify

French Heavy metal band Gojira are ”calling for unity.”

After the astounding release of the single ‘Amazonia’ Gojira announced ‘Operation Amazonia.

Operation Amazonia is an attempt at finding the best way to help the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest by funding the Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation (APIB).

When the operation was announced, one of the first plans the band supported was to earn $75,000 dollars in an attempt to build up to 15 healing houses in the Guarni-Kaiowa Territory. The houses are important for the birth rights of the indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon.

Joe Duplantier, the frontman and a guitarist of the band has spoke personally to leaders of the amazon such as Sonia Guajajara and Jaqueline Kaiowa, who represent more than 300 Amazonian tribes to find the best ways in which to protect the forest, that being to ”empower, collaborate and unify with the indigenous tribes” as they know the forest and how to help it heal.

Talented artists such as Devin Townsend, Slash and even Behemoths Nergal have donated instruments to earn for bidders as an attempt to earn the $75,000 benchmark.

So far, the initiative has earned $283,052 as of the 30th of April, the release date of Fortitude, Gojira’s new album.

The impact this project will have for the people of the amazon will be beyond beneficial. Gojira, as well as their fans and many other artists, have given the people of the amazon a real chance at recovering from the 2019 fires that spread throughout the rainforest, this also allows for unity in the future as the heavy metal genre shifts towards healing the world a theme prevalent bands such as Sepultura, a band Gojira are known to be influenced by, who released ‘Guardians of Earth’ on their 2020 album ‘Quadra’ about the beauty of the Amazon and the ‘selfish desires’ of those who would try to destroy it.

Operation Amazonia shows the power a community can have to influence something positively through music. Gojira have created a new precedent for what their music and metal music means as a genre through their unification of the masses regardless of differences.