Despite the constant presence of Indigenous people’s imagery in Brazilian arts since the colonial era, it is only in recent years that artistic expressions coming from indigenous artists have begun to resonate. The goal of “Indigenous Thought and the Environmental Crisis in Brazil” is to bring forth a discussion presenting a decolonial viewpoint of the notion of being Indigenous in Brazil today. Focused on Brazilian Indigenous literature, art and other productions by this historically marginalized group, panelists will present the indigenous perspective on the environmental crisis and/or the cultural shock - en lieu of cultural “encounters” as we commonly learn from hegemonic discourses. It is the first time in history that members of indigenous communities find a place and space in the academic realm as authors, not as subjects of research.

By looking into contemporary Indigenous populations in Brazil, and decoloniality under the lenses of Indigenous Studies, the panelists highlight a broader and multifaceted understanding of the concept of globalization throughout the centuries. The history of colonization, particularly that of Indigenous populations - told by themselves -, serve as a background. Discussions on how multicultural diversity creates new (cultural, social, political) dynamics that structure the notion of a hybrid nation will help us to re-evaluate the impact of the minorities in the social, cultural, and economic dynamics in a society. This session will promote social awareness and inclusiveness by means of analyzing literary and artistic works.

Rodrigo Simon bases his presentation on the works of two Indigenous artists from the Alto Rio Negro region, in the northern part of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, Denilson Baniwa and Verenilde Pereira. Simon highlights in the works of visual artist Baniwa and the writer Pereira their artistic perspectives on the environment. Both make use of counter narratives and new platforms to generate and resonate cultural clashes, proposing the emergence of new – and innovative - ontologies.

Laura Vieira will present the graphic novel, Os donos da terra (2020), which is composed by testimonies of members of the Tupinambá tribe, in the region of Bahia. The novel recounts the community’s struggle to preserve the land and their traditional lifestyle. As a comic book, Os donos da terra offers its audience verbal and visual reading of the stories of the Tupinambá. With elements that are typical of this medium, such as impressions generated by the combination of words and images, or the transition between frames as a narrative strategy, Vieira will analyze the production of meaning in comics. She proposed to inquire how this format contributes to the reader's engagement with the Tupinambá cause. By also considering Hans Staden’s 16th century publication about the Tupinambá, describing them as cannibal savages, Vieira wants to contrast the contemporary self-image present in the graphic novel to underscore the indigenous authorship as essential to the deconstruction of harmful stereotypes against original peoples in Brazilian collective imagination.

In “Listening with Amazonian Waterways and Banana Trees in the Works of Márcia Kambeba and Gustavo Caboco”, Kevin W. Ennis examines how a Kambeba writer and a Wapichana artist deploy ancestrality and territoriality in their works. They portray the multinatural, world-sharing and world-building, outside the Western, logocentric comfort zones. In Saberes da floresta (2020), Kambeba emphasizes listening with rivers, treating waterways as more-than-human relatives. As she counternarrates predatory extractivism across the Amazon forest, Kambeba deploys a sensorial territoriality as a decolonizing gesture: she proposes learning as an embodied—not just intellectual—experience that activates and is activated by the senses. Based on Caboco’ 2022 exhibition ouvir a terra, the images of banana trees likewise bring his community’s submerged perspectives to the visual, sensorial surface. His work highlights human and more-than-human experiences of learning and thriving. In dialogue with one another, Kambeba and Caboco construct imaginaries of Amazonia that centralize Indigenous cosmovisions and multinatural perspectives, rather than colonialist, destructive logics of extractivism, building decolonial paths forward from Amazonia’s ecological and sociopolitical crises.

Similarly, but focusing on cinematic productions, Patrícia Vieira will examine short films by Indigenous filmmakers addressing the destruction of the rainforest. In “Amazonian Indigenous Filmmaking as Environmental Activism”, Vieira analyses what she calls “ecocinematic” production to understand the ways in which cinema depicts a forest in ruins, at the same time as it points towards alternative paths. The Indigenous productions provide insights on how to inhabit the region in a more equitable manner. Vieira proposes to discuss whether Indigenous ecocinema can offer new perspectives on the Amazon Forest while underlining the shared human and non-human form of being and living.

Presentations will last 13 minutes.