Puyr Tembé – AI For Good Global Leaders Spotlight

The Indigenous Leader Bringing Ancestral Wisdom to AI

The world is racing to build increasingly powerful artificial intelligence. Yet one of the most important questions may not be how fast the technology advances. It is whether humanity remembers the wisdom that has sustained communities and ecosystems for thousands of years. Few voices are better positioned to answer that question than Puyr Tembé, an Indigenous leader of the Tembé people from Brazil’s Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Territory in the Amazon.

A lifelong defender of Indigenous rights, ancestral knowledge, and rainforest protection, Tembé has become one of Brazil’s most influential Indigenous leaders. At the AI for Good Global Summit 2026, she will help bring a perspective too often absent from discussions about emerging technologies. Innovation, she argues, must remain connected to nature, culture, and future generations.

Her participation underscores an important evolution in the global AI conversation. Artificial intelligence is no longer solely a technological issue. It is also a question of values, stewardship, and whose knowledge shapes humanity’s future.

From the Amazon to Global Leadership

Puyr Tembé’s leadership is rooted in her community.

She first rose to national prominence through the Federation of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Pará (FEPIPA). There she strengthened political representation for Indigenous peoples across one of Brazil’s most biodiverse regions. She later co-founded the National Articulation of Indigenous Women Warriors of Ancestry (ANMIGA). The movement became one of Brazil’s leading Indigenous women’s organizations, dedicated to protecting territories, cultures, and Indigenous leadership.

Her work reached a historic milestone when she became the first Secretary of State for Indigenous Peoples of Pará. She led Brazil’s first state-level government department created exclusively to serve Indigenous peoples. The appointment marked a turning point in Indigenous representation within public institutions. It gave Indigenous communities a direct voice in policymaking on land rights, education, culture, biodiversity, and sustainable development.

The Amazon’s Knowledge Systems

Around the world, Indigenous peoples steward some of the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems. They do so while representing only a small fraction of the global population.

For Tembé, this is not simply a conservation success. It reflects sophisticated knowledge systems developed over centuries through close relationships with forests, rivers, biodiversity, and community governance.

Artificial intelligence increasingly influences climate science, environmental monitoring, disaster resilience, and natural resource management. Against that backdrop, she argues that Indigenous knowledge should not be viewed as historical or peripheral. It is living knowledge that can complement scientific research and technological innovation. It can help societies make better decisions for both people and planet.

This perspective aligns closely with the AI for Good Summit’s broader mission. Technology should address humanity’s greatest challenges while remaining inclusive and locally grounded.

Technology Must Include Indigenous Voices

Tembé has consistently advocated for Indigenous peoples to be recognized not simply as beneficiaries of development, but as partners in shaping it.

Artificial intelligence is expanding into environmental monitoring, language preservation, mapping, education, and public services. Indigenous communities face both opportunities and risks in that expansion. AI can help preserve endangered languages, strengthen environmental protection, and improve access to essential services. Yet without meaningful participation, these same technologies can reinforce historical patterns of exclusion. They can misuse traditional knowledge or overlook Indigenous rights.

Protecting the Forest Means Protecting the Future

International audiences came to know Puyr Tembé through the documentary We Are the Guardians (Somos Guardiões). The film follows Indigenous leaders defending the Amazon against illegal deforestation and growing pressure on ancestral territories.

It highlights a reality increasingly recognized by scientists and policymakers alike. Protecting Indigenous rights is inseparable from protecting the world’s largest tropical rainforest and addressing the global climate crisis.

AI is becoming an increasingly powerful tool for monitoring forests, analyzing biodiversity, and supporting climate action. Tembé reminds the international community that technology is most effective when combined with lived experience. Those who have safeguarded these ecosystems for generations hold that experience.

Why Her Leadership Matters

Artificial intelligence is often associated with laboratories, data centers, and advanced computing. Puyr Tembé expands that vision. She reminds the world that humanity’s future will also depend on knowledge passed from generation to generation by communities living in harmony with nature.

Her presence at the AI for Good Global Summit reflects a growing recognition. The future of AI must be both technologically advanced and culturally inclusive.

Governments, scientists, and innovators are working to shape the next chapter of artificial intelligence. Tembé offers a powerful reminder as they do. Some of humanity’s oldest knowledge systems may hold essential insights for governing one of its newest technologies.