Threats to the Yanomami people are gaining attention around the world. With the exhibition at The Shed in New York, the cultural heritage of a people transcends borders.
A cultural group with a rich culture and long history, the Yanomami have made global headlines due to a humanitarian tragedy: hunger and the destruction of their territory, which spans two Brazilian states and extends into Venezuela, along with the invasion by thousands of gold miners.
While dramatic images of the deadly effects of malnutrition circulate in the press and on social media, the beauty of Yanomami culture is also making news and becoming a reason for celebration thanks to an exhibition at a major museum in New York.
The images result from a meeting between a Swiss photographer and indigenous peoples of the Amazon. Cláudia Andujar visited the Yanomami villages for the first time in 1970 and saw her own story reflected in that people. “All my relatives, except my mother, died in a concentration camp,” says the photographer.
The Jewish family was a victim of the Holocaust during World War II. The Yanomami became a mission: “A people that I want to continue living and not ‘die’ like my whole family died because of Nazism,” says Cláudia Andujar.
The photographer began documenting the daily lives of the Yanomami. She denounced the impacts of mining, the invasion by white men, diseases, malnutrition, and prostitution.
“The narrative of the exhibition shows this world and this society that for thousands of years lived in a certain harmony, integrated with nature, respecting nature, and that is gradually being exterminated and attacked by non-indigenous society that does not see and does not know how to respect nature,” explains Thyago Nogueira, curator of the exhibition.
They serve as historical records of a forest, of a people that is no longer the same as in the 1970s. The photos draw attention to a struggle for survival, for life, and give voice to a cry for help.
The indigenous Ehuana Yaira says that gold miners have approached the villages again, and they are suffering greatly. Her drawings, paintings, and videos from other Yanomami artists also illustrate the indigenous relationship with the forest.
The exhibition was already planned but has gained even more prominence now.
The shaman and indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa understands the power of these images. For over 30 years, they have spread around the world and helped in the movement for the demarcation of Yanomami lands, which occurred in 1992.
At that time, the shaman went to New York to seek support after receiving an award from the UN Environment Program.
“It is the same problem that has returned to Yanomami land. That is why I am here to speak again,” says Davi Kopenawa.
The new denunciation has caught the attention of the academic community at Princeton University, one of the most recognized in the United States.
Anthropologist and researcher Agustín Fuentes says that today there are many crises, such as those of the forest and climate. And that the Yanomami can help us face them if we learn to work together.
“I am asking for the protection of life and culture so that we can continue living in our motherland. To not end my people, you have to take care of it,” says Davi Kopenawa.