A guest at a Katrimani regional banquet decorated with vulture and eagle feathers Artwork © Claudia Andujar. Artist’s collection.
“[Andujar] is not Yanomami, but she is a true friend,” Kopenawa said in one of the A quote posted on the exhibit wall reads: “She taught me to fight and defend our people, land, language, customs, festivals, dances, chants and shamanism. She explained things to me like my own mother. I don’t know How to fight politicians, non-indigenous people. Well, she gave me a bow and arrow as a weapon, not to kill white people, but to defend Yanomami people.” Kopenawa told Vogue, this exhibition is another arrow in his quiver: hope that visitors will come, self-education, and needs change.
The election of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva is a reason for cautious optimism: Lula began his presidency by revoking all of Bolsonaro’s anti-Indigenous and anti-environment measures, and Creation of the country’s first Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, headed by Sônia Guajajara, a Guajajara/Tentehar people who are staunch defenders of the Amazon. But it’s unclear whether these measures will be enough to deal with the devastation and devastation that has already occurred, and whether they will actually be enforced without the global attention and pressure it brings. “It’s a war. It’s a war,” Chanders said. “It’s the Amazon, it’s the air we breathe. It’s also the beauty of the world, by the way.” Yes, Kopenawa agrees: “It’s worth fighting for.” war.
Yanomami Struggle is a collaboration between the Cartier pour l’art contemporain Foundation, the Moreira Salles Institute in São Paulo, and the Brazilian NGO Hutukara Associacao Yanomani, in collaboration with Instituto Socioambiental, will be at The Shed from February 3rd to April 2023, 2023 .2023 20232023
