Joy and defiance at gathering led by Amazonian chief Raoni Metuktire

Raoni Mekutire takes the stage to address the meeting he called to consider new strategies in the face of political and climate threats. Photograph: Kamikia Kisedje

During the world’s hottest month in more than 100,000 years, Indigenous men, women and children from all over Brazil made their way into one of the last great holdouts of the Amazon rainforest for a celebration tinged with sadness and defiance.

Amid rising concerns of drought and growing evidence that the biggest trees in the forest are beginning to die off, they came to Xingu national park to pay their respects to the most effective Amazon protector of them all, the Indigenous chief Raoni Metukire, who has indicated he may be coming towards the end of his activist days.