From March 8th, 2017, until January 28th, 2018, UBC’s Museum of Anthropology will be hosting Amazonia: The Rights of Nature. Amazonia discusses the ways in which Indigeneous communities have resisted threats facing the world’s largest rainforest.
Even today, Indigeneous people still face threats to their well-being, traditions, and land. Between 2003 and 2015 alone, there have been 891 targeted assassinations of indigeneous people living in Brazil.
In the front entrance of the exhibit there is a centre piece that tells the tragedy of the brutal attack and enslavement of the indigeneous group known as Kayapo in the 1800s. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the Brazilian government passed policies advocating for the active integration of the Kayapo people, along with other indigeneous groups. In 1987, the government suggested turning the Xingu River, particularly the Belo Monte Dam, into a series of hydroelectrial dams that would displace upwards of 20,000 Kayapo people. The museum displays a photo from 1989 of female Kayapo leader, Tuíra, caressing a machete across the cheek of an engineer, José Antônio Muniz Lópes, who later became the president of Eletronorte, the company in charge of building the dam.
The exhibit is powerful, uncomfortable, and informative – be sure to read the blocks of texts beneath the artworks. There you’ll find their stories.
The Museum of Anthropology is located on the north end of campus and is open until 5pm. (9pm on Thursday nights!)