THE INITIATIVE
We are watching a disaster. The Covid pandemic has shook the world in ways never seen before. And in Brazil, the current administration is taking advantage of the situation to push their agenda of environmental destruction and dismantlement of labour, economic and human rights. In face of this, traditional populations, known worldwide as guardians of the environment, are seen by the government as obstacles to be surpassed. And so, those historically marginalized communities have become even more imperiled. In order to soften the blows taken by those communities, it’s important to build strong cooperation networks.
Photosynthesis. Image, earth, breathing and cooperation.
This project began as a quest for breath in times of suffocation. We built this campaign alongside the traditional populations from the north of the state of Minas Gerais, through their unified political movement Articulação Rosalino Gomes, and with the support of Centro de Agricultura Alternativa do Norte de Minas - CAA/NM, an organization that has been working with those communities for the past 35 years. We wish to share knowledge and beauty. To tell stories of ancestral resistance. To strengthen the struggles of the peoples who so courageously face rural political and economic oligarchies in defense of their land, their way of living and our environment.
Photosynthesis. Image, earth, breathing and cooperation.
This project began as a quest for breath in times of suffocation. We built this campaign alongside the traditional populations from the north of the state of Minas Gerais, through their unified political movement Articulação Rosalino Gomes, and with the support of Centro de Agricultura Alternativa do Norte de Minas - CAA/NM, an organization that has been working with those communities for the past 35 years. We wish to share knowledge and beauty. To tell stories of ancestral resistance. To strengthen the struggles of the peoples who so courageously face rural political and economic oligarchies in defense of their land, their way of living and our environment.
And through a partnership formed with Imagem Impressa printing studio, we are offering Hahnemühle certified high quality fine art prints that last up to 200 years. The pictures will be available for purchase until 9/11, when it’s celebrated the National Cerrado Day in Brazil. The Cerrado is the second largest biome in Latin America and where most of those communities reside. Half of all the resources gathered during this campaign will be sent back to the communities represented in it.
There are five communities from three different populations represented in this project. Click on them to know more: Quilombolas (Quilombo da Lapinha e Quilombo de Praia), Geraizeiros (Água Boa II e Sobrado) and Vazanteiros (Pau Preto).
THE TEAM
Breno Lima graduated in Journalism at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Since 2016, he has been working with the photographer and documentarian João Roberto Ripper in a project to preserve his decades-long photography archive.
As a photographer, he develops documentation focused on Health and Human Rights. He documents mental health political movements such as Brazil's Anti-Asylum Movement and the Psychiatric Reform in Rio de Janeiro. He also photographed the first Multiprofessional Family Health Residence with Emphasis on the Countryside People, a project carried out by SUS (Brazil's public health system), the University of Pernambuco, the MST (Landless Rural Works Movement), and the Quilombola Movement in Pernambuco' agreste region. He has already participated in the documentation of traditional populations both in the states of Pernambuco and Minas Gerais.
Contatos
brenocrispino@gmail.com
IG: @brenocrispinooulima
As a photographer, he develops documentation focused on Health and Human Rights. He documents mental health political movements such as Brazil's Anti-Asylum Movement and the Psychiatric Reform in Rio de Janeiro. He also photographed the first Multiprofessional Family Health Residence with Emphasis on the Countryside People, a project carried out by SUS (Brazil's public health system), the University of Pernambuco, the MST (Landless Rural Works Movement), and the Quilombola Movement in Pernambuco' agreste region. He has already participated in the documentation of traditional populations both in the states of Pernambuco and Minas Gerais.
Contatos
brenocrispino@gmail.com
IG: @brenocrispinooulima
Sara Gehren is a sociologist with a bachelor's degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a degree from the Universidade Federal Fluminense. She is currently a post-graduate student at Colégio Pedro II, specializing in Ethnic-Racial Relations in Basic Education. Since 2016, she's been working with the photographer and documentarian João Roberto Ripper in a project to preserve his decades-long photography archive.
As a photographer, she develops adocumentation focused on traditional populations, social movements and popular education and political organization. She documented the 2016 high school and university occupations, and has been following the political demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro since 2014. She also photographs the daily life of Casa Mãe Mulher, a welcoming space for mothers and family members who visit their children in compliance with Socio-Educational Measures at the CAI-Baixada, a state youth detention center, since 2018. And is part of an educational project for public schools in conflict territories called Pensadores Cariocas, since 2019.
As a photographer, she develops adocumentation focused on traditional populations, social movements and popular education and political organization. She documented the 2016 high school and university occupations, and has been following the political demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro since 2014. She also photographs the daily life of Casa Mãe Mulher, a welcoming space for mothers and family members who visit their children in compliance with Socio-Educational Measures at the CAI-Baixada, a state youth detention center, since 2018. And is part of an educational project for public schools in conflict territories called Pensadores Cariocas, since 2019.
PARTNERSHIP
Articulação Rosalino Gomes of Traditional Populations from North Minas Gerais
Homage paid to Rosalino Gomes by the Xakriabá people - CAA/NM Archive
Formed in 2010 and named after the indigenous leader Rosalino Gomes, murdered by farmers in 1987, Articulação Rosalino Gomes de Povos Tradicionais do Norte de Minas* gathers all the diversity of the traditional populations of the north of Minas Gerais and from the High Jequitinhonha Valley in an unified political movement. It represents each of the seven traditional peoples from the region, which are the indigenous Xakriabá and Tuxá people, Quilombola communities, the Geraizeiros, the Vazanteiros, the Veredeiros, the Caatingueiros and the Flower Gatherers. Together, these populations face the threats menacing their traditional territories, such as the agribusiness, monocultures of eucalyptus and other non-native vegetations, big livestock farms, charcoal and mining enterprises and public projects that don’t respect their rights to the territories. Articulação Rosalino Gomes was created not only from the continuous necessity of unification to protect the traditional peoples, but also from the affirmation of their identities, cultures, stories and memories. It’s an union of political struggles, as much as an exchange of information and affects.
Know more here (in Portuguese): https://www.facebook.com/articulacaorosalino/
*Rosalino Gomes Association of Traditional Populations from North Minas Gerais
WHO WAS ROSALINO GOMES?
The history of the Xakriabá struggle for the acknowledgement of their lands goes back to more than a century. Between mostly failed attempts of negotiations with public institutions and violent battles against big farmers and grileiros, it was only in 1987, after a slaughter, that these indigenous people had their land ratified. Amongst the victims of the slaughter was Rosalino Gomes de Oliveira, an indigenous leader that emerged to prominence during the escalation of the conflicts that took place mostly during Brazil’s military dictatorship.
Despite many important achievements made in decades of struggle, the conflict only worsened with the eventual involvement of the government. At the federal level, a brutal military dictatorship at the time, there was a constant stimulus to the advancement of agribusiness towards rural Brazil. The state government also supported this project, giving cover to illegitimate land claims by private farmers called grileiros. And the mayors of cities like Itacarambi and São João das Missões openly opposed the acknowledgement of the Xakriabá’s land. At last, even FUNAI* became oblivious to the threats and attacks the Xakriabá people suffered.
And so Rosalino Gomes emerges as a prominent figure. Acting without any support from official institutions, Rosalino articulates the Xakriabá insurgency. The indigenous retook invaded lands, organized occupations, settlements and small farms. His courage and effectiveness made him so notorious that he became a target. And, in 1987, after the end of the dictatorship, Rosalino is murdered in front of his wife and children by a group of mercenaries hired by the farmer Francisco de Assis Amaro. Two other indigenous leaders were assassinated in the same night.
The massacre caught attention of the whole nation and culminated in the official acknowledgement of the Xakriabá territory. Rosalino Gomes became a martyr of the struggle for human rights and the Xakriabá history of resistance is now a symbol for the struggle of traditional peoples.
Despite many important achievements made in decades of struggle, the conflict only worsened with the eventual involvement of the government. At the federal level, a brutal military dictatorship at the time, there was a constant stimulus to the advancement of agribusiness towards rural Brazil. The state government also supported this project, giving cover to illegitimate land claims by private farmers called grileiros. And the mayors of cities like Itacarambi and São João das Missões openly opposed the acknowledgement of the Xakriabá’s land. At last, even FUNAI* became oblivious to the threats and attacks the Xakriabá people suffered.
And so Rosalino Gomes emerges as a prominent figure. Acting without any support from official institutions, Rosalino articulates the Xakriabá insurgency. The indigenous retook invaded lands, organized occupations, settlements and small farms. His courage and effectiveness made him so notorious that he became a target. And, in 1987, after the end of the dictatorship, Rosalino is murdered in front of his wife and children by a group of mercenaries hired by the farmer Francisco de Assis Amaro. Two other indigenous leaders were assassinated in the same night.
The massacre caught attention of the whole nation and culminated in the official acknowledgement of the Xakriabá territory. Rosalino Gomes became a martyr of the struggle for human rights and the Xakriabá history of resistance is now a symbol for the struggle of traditional peoples.
*FUNAI - National Indian Foundation
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