Showing posts with label Brazil. Show all posts

2012/10/10

I support the Indigenous Cause

Copyright © Tatiana Cardeal. All rights reserved.
Reprodução proibida. © Todos os direitos reservados.

The model of development that Brazil was rising in the last years could have some strong positive points, but some issues related with the environment, sustainability, violence and disrespect of the Indigenous and Traditional Communities rights (as the Quilombolas - historic afro-brazilian communities) are just going worst.

Last July and August I traveled about 4000km on the Brazilian east boarder, between Bahia' South state and the North of Espírito Santo, visiting many Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian communities (Quilombolas). I was shooting for a research that will be published soon. The main picture is really bad. I also met and interviewed anthropologists, professors at universities and researchers, and what I've seen is disappointment when not revolt.
A meeting formed by a large national group of anthropologists to write a collective manifest for the government was recent planned to happen in Florianópolis. I'll updated about.

You've probably heard about Belo Monte Dam and other projects in the Amazon area, troubles with deforestation, monoculture, and lands issues in the country. The Brazilian Association of Judges for Democracy (www.ajd.org.br) released a campaign named "I Support the Indigenous Cause" and are asking for signatures.

I support the Indigenous Cause
Against the PEC 215 (proposed constitutional amendment)
Demarcation of the Indigenous Lands
Urgency in Court Decisions

There are more detailed information rolling the bar on this link.
I Support the Indigenous Cause
Check the link for other languages:
Português / Español / Français / Italiano / English

If you agree, you can sign the petition that will be sent to the Supreme Court,
the President of the Republic, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Please, share the campaign with your contacts.

________________________

Eu Apoio a Causa Indígena

Photo: > Kayapó women were singing and dancing their traditions during the Indigenous National Festival, 2012. Bertioga, SP, Brazil.

2011/02/02

Back to the point: Belo Monte Dam

Copyright © Tatiana Cardeal. All rights reserved.
Reprodução proibida. © Todos os direitos reservados.

> Yawalapiti warriors live along the Xingu River, at the Xingu Park. I photographed them during the Indigenous National Festival.

While watching the bad day that people, photographers, journalists had in Cairo today, I was observing the arrogance of Muraback's govern and feeling shocked with all the violence. At the same time, I needed to write again about another trouble in another govern, that in a way, is also showing arrogance and total disrespect from it's people: Brazil and the way the Belo Monte Dam have been conduced.

A recent partial license grant given by an interim president of IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for Environment and Natural Renewable Resources), allowed the construction camps and site of the hydroelectric plant of Belo Monte in the Xingu River, at Para State - and has generated a series of reactions against the decision at the media. Federal prosecutors had recommended to IBAMA to not fragment the licensing to speed up the process because the requirements for the previous license had not been completed. A partial license (which should be part of a full license) does not exist in Brazilian environmental legislation.
Not enough, the Federal Public Ministry estimates the number of people affected to be about 40,000 - including traditional and indigenous populations!

Also a controversial fact was the departure of then President of IBAMA, Aberlardo Bayma, on January 12. Bayma justified the resignation saying that his decision was motivated by "personal reasons". However, rumors on the media tell that in recent meetings with Eletronorte, Bayma refused to grant the dam's final construction license, arguing that IBAMA could not grant the document since the project is full of environmental disputes.
Belo Monte's socio-environmental viability is also considered the reason for former Environmental Minister (and candidate in the 2010 presidential elections) Marina Silva stepping out of office in 2008.
Well, there are a lot of new information going on media and social media every day, showing many irregularities, economics doubts, and some institutional explanations. A quick research on the web will add much more to this issue.

Meanwhile, many organizations, social movements, indigenous people, activists, anthropologists, economists, journalists, environmentalists, judges... and many like me, have been alerting and questioning if this dam is really needed, and what are the real costs of this project (economic, human and environmental). The answer is still a mystery. Too many doubts to put so many and so much in risk.

Enough from today! With all I've seen, one thing must be said: Muraback won't be forgot by the history for his choices and acts. The same will happen with the Belo Monte Dam in Brazil.

Mobilizations and online petition

Amigos da Terra, Amazonia.org.br, Amazon Watch, AVAAZ.org, Greenpeace, Instituto Akatu, Instituto Sociambiental, International Conservation, International Rivers, Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre, and other organizations, have been incisive on their position against the continuity of the project in the way it's being developed. Some of them started campaigns.

On Twitter, mostly of them are spreading the rashtag #parebelomonte and #belomontenao to protest and call attention for the issue. Some tweets are sharing petitions to be signed.

Avaaz launched a large petition, you can sign here.
"President Dilma promised in her inauguration speech to develop Brazil without damaging the environment. But the Belo Monte dam would be the opposite -- a massive environmental scar in the heart of the Amazon."

Save the Xingu River says, and can be signed here.
"It would divert the flow of the Xingu River and devastate an extensive area of the Brazilian rainforest, displace over 20,000 people and threaten the survival of indigenous peoples."

"Now is a crucial time to take action to defend the Xingu River."

Sources: Global Voices , Survival International , Instituto Sociambiental , Ministério Público Federal do Pará , Avaaz , Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre , Miriam Leitão.com

2010/10/28

do we have a future?

Copyright © Tatiana Cardeal. All rights reserved.
Reprodução proibida. © Todos os direitos reservados.

In the middle of so many debates about our presidential elections, sustainable development, social responsibility...
what would be the real future for Xingu People of Brazil?

Tuesday, October 26, the Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre (Movement Xingu Alive Forever), a coalition of over 250 organizations and social movements that oppose the construction of Belo Monte dam, sent to Dilma Rousseff and Jose Serra a letter requesting that they expose their projects about the controversial dam. It's time to hear answers from these candidates. We can strengthen the process, and let them know that the world is watching signing this:
Petition (english)
Abaixo-assinado (português)

You can also visit the Movement site here and support the cause at their social networks:
Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre

> Exhausted, a Kayapo child, during the Indigenous National Festival.

2010/10/17

Out My Window - interative 360º documentary!

Out My Window is the first major global of HIGHRISE super cool multi-media collaborative documentary experiment at the National Film Board of Canada, directed by Katerina Cizek.
And I'm in!

Highrise is a project about the human experience in vertical suburbs, "exploring the state of our urban planet told by people who look out on the world from highrise windows... residents who harness the human spirit — and the power of the community...". These concepts approximated one of their editors, Heather Frise, to my documentary work at Prestes Maia Occupation (at São Paulo, Brazil), that was showed at this blog (and Flickr).

I contributed with some of my Archival Photos, images I took at the occupation during 2005 to 2007, that are showed on the "Neighbours" and "Highrise Squat", both pieces of Ivaneti's story. Sadly, I was just arriving in China (2009) when they first contacted me asking to make the records and new photos for Ivaneti's story, but couldn't follow them. Another photographer in São Paulo, Julio Bittencourt, that also worked at the P. Maia Occupation and knew the people did it, and his images looks so great!

The project worth a visit! Check it here.
Loved!

2010/08/09

International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

Take a moment to participate in the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.
Send a letter to the White House in support of the United States endorsement of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
See this link from the Indian Law Resource Center.

Endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

> photo: Xavante People, at the Indigenous National Festival.

2010/08/07

Shawãdawa

A Shawãdawa men, also knowed as Arara do Acre, was happy at the Indigenous Meeting.

I'm also happy to tell you that after many letters that you sent this week, it finally happened the approval of the Draft Law on Conversion (PLV) 08/2010, at the Brazilian Federal Senate.
After the vote, the Indians moved, gathered at the entrance of the Congress and celebrated the victory, after almost two years of intense mobilization of indigenous leaders and organizations, calling for the end of the participation of Funasa.

With nearly 300 years of delay, the Senate approves creation of the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health.
A historical neglect should start to be repaired.

2010/08/02

yanomami ritual

For the Yanomami, urihi, the forest-land, is not a mere inert space for economic exploration (of what we call 'nature'). It is a living entity, part of a complex cosmological dynamic of exchanges between humans and non-humans. As such, it today finds itself threatened by the reckless predation of whites. In the view of their leader:

"The forest-land will only die if it is destroyed by whites. Then, the creeks will disappear, the land will crumble, the trees will dry and the stones of the mountains will shatter under the heat. The xapiripë spirits who live in the mountain ranges and play in the forest will eventually flee. Their fathers, the shamans, will not be able to summon them to protect us. The forest-land will become dry and empty. The shamans will no longer be able to deter the smoke-epidemics and the malefic beings who make us ill. And so everyone will die."

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami

Information by: ISA
>> photo of Yanomami shamans at the Indigenous National Festival, Bertioga, Brazil.

Please sign the letter to the Brazilian Senate and help.
They still need many signatures:
Rainforest Foundation / petition

_________

Saiba mais e participe assinando no link abaixo:
Instituto Socioambiental: Saúde Indígena

2010/07/29

yanomami alert

"Healthcare programs for indigenous peoples in Brazil are overseen by a federal agency, called FUNASA, under the Ministry of Health. In Northern Brazil, the Yanomami have denounced an alarming increase in malaria cases, exacerbated by illegal gold mining. Currently, medical assistance is not getting to the communities because of bureaucratic hurdles around the approval of airstrips in the Yanomami Area – something that has never been a problem either there or elsewhere. Indeed, many of the scandals involving FUNASA have taken place within the Yanomami health program. In the Javari Valley, a vast indigenous area in the western Amazon, hepatitis and malaria epidemics are ravaging the Kanamari, Matis, Marubo Tsohom-dyapa, and Korubo, as well as isolated groups that live in the region. "

For these and other reasons, indigenous organizations, organizations on human rights, racial equality and policies for women are mobilizing for what the Senate does not change the Bill of Conversion and vote before the 4th of August, when expiry of the term MP 483.

We hope that through a new, independent government office, indigenous healthcare will receive the attention it deserves.

Please sign the letter to the Brazilian Senate

Learn more and participate by sending the signing the petition at the link!
We need a lot of signatures and we have only four days.
Thank you!

http://www.change.org/rainforest_foundation/petitions/view/indigenous_healthcare_under_threat_in_brazil

>> photo of Yanomami people at the Indigenous National Festival, Bertioga, Brazil.

2010/06/04

Health and Happiness Project at the Amazon

Open publication

Plateform published a selection of images from the series I took at the Health and Happiness Project (Projeto Saúde e Alegria) during a few days in the Amazon region. There's also an interview. The link above is for the English pages of the essay (for the French pages, click here).

Use this link to see more about the Health and Happiness Project published at this blog.

> Info:
▪ Projeto Saúde e Alegria
▪ Plateform Magazine
"PLATEFORM est un magazine pour exposer, s'exposer, se raconter et raconter. PLATEFORM ouvre le regard et s'ouvre aux talents. PLATEFORM apporte une double vision sur un thème, un lieu, une émotion, une idée."

2010/05/02

Exhibition "Education is a right: non-discrimination in Latin America and the Caribbean"

I made this picture a few years ago (2005), during the Brazilian celebration of Children's Day, where the ngo Children at Risk Foundation (CARF - Rede Cultural Beija Flor) developed a series of educational and cultural activities with children and youth in the region of Diadema, periphery of Sao Paulo.

This picture and the following two images, relating to the same topic, will participate this month in an exhibition that depicts the diversity within the school environment in Latin America and Caribbean.

"Held by CLADE in the campaign for non-discrimination in education, the traveling exhibit will bring together 36 images captured in different countries.

Give visibility to the issue of discrimination in education is crucial in order to recognize its existence and to think of ways to overcome this reality. In Brazil, for example, 97% of people recognize have some kind of prejudice against different groups in the school environment (FIFE). Thinking about it, CLADE held at the Memorial da América Latina a photographic exhibition in May.

With the theme "Education is a Right: the Non-Discrimination in Latin America and the Caribbean", the exhibition curated by photographer Maíra Soares, which brought together 36 images by clicking the various countries of Latin America and the Caribbean by names such as Brazilian photographer Gilvan Barreto and Argentina's Néstor López. The launch of the show, May 3rd, follows the opening of the 6th Assembly of CLADE.

The realization of the right to education for indigenous and Afro-descended, by people with disabilities, persons deprived of their liberty, pregnant teenagers and adults as well as the contexts of the field and on the periphery of cities are represented through the images. Wins highlighted the current situation in Haiti.
"The pictures show scenes of everyday school life in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, giving visibility to the reality of groups and individuals who have been systematically discriminated against, in and out of education. Thus, while the exhibition wants to celebrate the difference, you also want to point out the challenges that remain, even 10 years after the commitments to Education for All signed in Dakar, so that the right to education is realized for all people" says Camilla Croso, general coordinator of CLADE.

On May 6, from 10am to 12pm, the event has the participation of the UN's special rapporteur on the right to education, Vernor Muñoz, receiving the public, especially students and tutors, for a discussion of the topic discrimination in education.

In theaters until May 29, the exhibition is touring and will be displayed later in other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean."
(text: website from CLADE campaign)

Exhibition:
"Education is a right: non-discrimination in Latin America and the Caribbean"
At the Memorial of Latin America from 3 to 29, May, 2010.

Other images from this exhibition and media news (Brazilian links):
• Exposição discute discriminação na educação na América Latina e Caribe - Notícias R7
• Encontro debate educação na América Latina e Caribe - Educação IG
• Exposição mostra a realidade das escolas da América Latina - Educação UOL

2010/04/10

EARTH Issue

Copyright © Tatiana Cardeal. All rights reserved.
Reprodução proibida. © Todos os direitos reservados.

Global issues through the eyes of women.

I loved this cover, entitled EARTH - Transforming Energy.
This issue of World Pulse Magazine brings a closer look at women transforming the environmental movement, women leaders who are courageously combating environmental degradation to save their homelands. It comes with the article: Daughter of the Amazon, Marina Silva.

Maria Xerente, the indigenous lady posing for this portrait made a conscious speech at the last cultural Festival at Bertioga.
It was about Respect.
Her words led us to the sense of respect for elders, those who came before and throw light ahead.

Wisdom.

"It is the marriage between tradition and modernity, between city and forest, sky and earth that will make Brazil into the nation we seek."
Marina Silva to Tierramérica

Respect, a key to marriages, relationships, balance of people and Earth.

2009/12/18

Humanity Photo Awards 2009

September, 2009 |

I was invited to come to Guangzhou - China, to attend the prize giving ceremony
award at The Humanity Photo Awards (HPA), and it's opening exhibition.
The Award is Organized by The China Folklore Photographic Association (CFPA),
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
and The Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (GAGOC),

I'm a Documentary Award Winners for Portraits and Costumes series, with the entitled
Brazilian Nations, part of a larger documentation of the Indigenous Festival that
I've been working since 2005.

The award prize sent me to Asia, and for a week winners of HPA 2009 from
around the world come and gather in Guangzhou city, sharing the meeting.

> Main image: from the Indigenous Festival at Bertioga town,
an Asurini woman that lives in Pará State from Brazil.

2009/09/03

the Jabuti spirit can sing

Embraced by his friend that was playing the flute, they danced together.
It was the first time I've seen someone playing a Jabuti's (turtle) hull.
The sound was a vibration produced by the friction of his warm hand,
in a constant rhythm, giving me a sense of transe.
Hypnotic and beautiful.

In the House of Knowledge, at São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas.

2009/07/22

Bará

A Bará Indigenous man that is living at São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas, also found at the Maloca (House of Knowledge) a secure place to express his own traditions and share with others. A way to keep his immaterial cultural alive.

With a peculiar humor, he was listed to me as a 'dangerous indigenous man' by the Baniwa's leader of the community, because he has a mustache (not very usual here).
Bará People are rare in Brazil, a estimative about their group here is about only 39 people. His original tribe is near the frontier with Colômbia, around Papuri river.

São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas.
+ Info: ISA: Povo Bará

2009/07/16

maloca's gate

There are 22 familes living at Itacoatiara Mirim, a Baniwa Comunity around São Gabriel da Cachoeira. To recover their traditions after leaving the original tribe, they built this "Maloca", also knowed as House of Knowledge.

"House of Knowledge is an area of transmission and learning of the traditional culture for those who do not know or forgot. It's to talk, tell stories of past, reliving the custom to eat together. A place to dance, make instruments, showing the young our culture" explained Mestre Luiz Laureano, community leader. "The House of Knowledge is also to receive relatives who come from the original tribe to share with us the stories of our family who were there. Is a school that will pass knowledge. "

São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas - Brazil.

Info | ISA - Índios e a Casa de Conhecimento

2009/05/31

curandero

Seu Feliciano showed his visions and paintings,
his heartfelt fields of reality, a magic world.

Feliciano's veins,
rivers of dreams and spirituality.

Feliciano Lana is a Desana Indigenous, a story teller,
a healer and a visual artist, living in São Gabriel da Cachoeira,
beside the Rio Negro river, at Amazonas state.

2009/04/26

burn it blue

Free market, at São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas.

The Negro River doesn't have a generous offer of fishes, and the people living at São Gabriel, almost 1000 km far from Manaus, still receive a lot of needs from this city. A long journey by boat that takes 4 to 7 days.

In the free market is possible to find a few fresh things, like fish, flour, cassava, some local fruits... but food can be a hard thing. In this city where mostly of the population (99%) are indigenous people, they've been serious afraid about climate changes. The river was too high to start working on the plantations, the fish are poor, and a single can of milk costs at least $5 dollars, when you can find it.

2009/04/22

one third

one third, originally uploaded by Tatiana Cardeal.

In the next 20 years, the amount of water available for each person
in the world will be reduced by one third.
Today we have 6.5 billion people in the world, and of these,
2 billion have no access to drinking water.
In Brazil, 22 million people lack access to drinking water.

Rio Negro (Black River), Amazonas -Brasil.

2009/04/21

behind us

Rio Negro (Black River), Amazonas -Brasil.

2009/04/16

melted time

Waters cross borders, linking us together.

Last February, Rio Negro has reached the highest level in 106 years.
Everything were under water.

Rio Negro (Black River), Amazonas -Brasil.