The war on nature “is forcing the butterflies to erase their colors and convert themselves into browns and grays, the tones of the burnt forest, in order to mimic and survive”
This conference took place on Sat 19 and Sun 20 November 2022, on Zoom and in Lancaster, UK. It was part of a month of activities honouring Dom Phillips, Bruno Pereira, and others risking their lives defending the rainforest. On show was a set of photographs of the Amazon by ethnobotanist and activist Gina Frausin, and Halton Mill’s exhibition, ‘For Dom, Bruno and the Amazon’ which can be seen here.
This page includes recordings of most of the sessions, presentations, links and recommended reading. This was part of a month of activities about the Amazon in and around Lancaster and online in November 2022, organised by Halton Mill. For further information about the month of activities, see www.haltonmill.org.uk/DomBruno.
Click on the hyperlinked titles of each speaker to see the recordings, slides and find further information (or scroll down the page).
Day One, Sat 19 November.
Dr Juliana M. Silveira, Lancaster University Environment Centre. Introduction, welcome, setting the scene.
The importance of the Amazon to the people who live there and to the world: & how forest conservation has been destroyed by Bolsonaro’s government.
Dr Leonardo De Sousa Miranda, Lancaster University Environment Centre. Explaining the Amazon Tipping Point – and why we should care.
Victoria Frausin, Lancaster based Colombian textile activist, community artist and coordinator of Sewing Café Lancaster; – Saving the Amazon for whom? The case of the Mineracao Rio Norte Bauxite mine in Oriximiná, Brazil .
Dr Mariana Fonseca Braga: Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University: “Community resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond”.
Dr James Fraser, Lancaster University Environment Centre. Retaking Indigenous lands in Amazonia: The Sataré-Mawé struggle to reclaim ancestral territory on the River Mariaquá
Summary/overview, Dr Luciana Mendes Barbosa
Day Two, Sun 20 November.
Sarah Shenker, Survival International: The global campaign for uncontacted tribes
Hannah Peck, Cool Earth. Cash versus the climate crisis : a radical rethink
Annette Marti, Greenpeace. What can WE do to help save the Amazon.
Keynote speech with Dr Nelly Marubo. “A importância da preservação da floresta na perspectiva do povo Marubo” (The importance of preserving the forest: the perspective of the Marubo people).
Round table on ‘Reporting on the Amazon’ – with Amazon-based journalists Tom Phillips and Jonathan Watts from the Guardian and Sumaúma, Katia Brasil from investigative journalism agency Amazônia Real. Chair: Alison Cahn.
Dr Juliana Silveira
Watch the video of the opening address here .
Opening address: text here
Opening address slides here
Presentation slides here: The importance of the Amazon to the people who live there and to the world: & how forest conservation has been destroyed by Bolsonaro’s government.
Watch the video of the presentation here
Juliana recommends, from Eliane Brum – “The English version of THE BOOK of my life is going to be released in March!!! And it can be pre-ordered now on Amazon.co.uk: or from Blackwells: Banzeiro Òkòtó- The Amazon as the centre of the world.
Dr Leonardo De Sousa Miranda
Presentation slides here: Explaining the Amazon Tipping Point – and why we should care.
Link to video of presentation here.
Victoria Frausin
Presentation slides here: Saving the Amazon for whom? The case of the Mineracao Rio Norte Bauxite mine in Oriximiná, Brazil .
Link to video of presentation here
Dr Mariana Fonseca Braga:
Slides here: “Community resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond”.
Link to video of presentation here
James Fraser Retaking Indigenous lands in Amazonia: The Sataré-Mawé struggle to reclaim ancestral territory on the River Mariaquá
Link to video of presentation here.
Presentation slides here: Retaking Indigenous lands in Amazonia
Further reading/viewing on the Sataré retaking ancestral land
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/06/the-satere-mawe-move-to-reclaim-amazon-ancestral-lands-from-invaders/?
https://newint.org/features/2019/04/09/long-read-bullet-ants-and-stolen-land?
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/indigenous-and-riverine-communities-unite-to-fight-amazon-invaders/
The Vaccine (2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sVe5QczSzU?
– Film awarded Honourable Mention by judges at the 3rd Ethnographic film Festival of Para in Belem, Brazil. ?
– being screened by the Hemispheric Institute’s Indigenous Cinema ’22—Images to Postpone the End of the World Series November 11 – December 12, 2022
Research Grant CONFAP (CNPq-UK Academies) 2018 w/ Mauricio Torres at Federal University of Western Para, Brazil
Summary/overview, Dr Luciana Mendes Barbosa
Read Luciana’s summary/overview here.
SUNDAY
Sarah Shenker, Survival International The global campaign for uncontacted tribes.
See links and further actions here.
Link to video of the talk here
Hannah Peck, Cool Earth: Cash versus the climate crisis: a radical rethink of conservation.
See Hannah’s slides here. Link to video of her presentation here
Annette Marti, Greenpeace: What can WE do to help to save the Amazon.
See Annette’s presentation slides here.
Link to Greenpeace’s video ‘there’s a jaguar in my kitchen’ here.
Dr Nelly Marubo: Keynote speech. “A importância da preservação da floresta na perspectiva do povo Marubo” (The importance of preserving the forest: the perspective of the Marubo people).
Link to a video of her presentation here
Recommended books:
Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo, by Ailton Krenak 2020 (Ideas to Postpone the End of the World). Downloadable Portuguese version here: Purchasable English version at the links below
HERE from the publishers in dollars https://houseofanansi.com/products/ideas-to-postpone-the-end-of-the-world
HERE from Blackwell’s in £ https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Ideas-to-Postpone-the-End-of-the-World-by-Ailton-Krenak-Anthony-Doyle-translator/9781487008512
HERE from Amazon in £ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ideas-Postpone-World-Ailton-Krenak/dp/1487008511
A Queda do Ceu by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert. (2015)
Portuguese version here: https://www.companhiadasletras.com.br/trechos/12959.pdf
English version (The falling sky, words of a Yanomami Shaman) here. https://letrasindomitas.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/2013-davi-kopenawa-bruce-albert-alison-dundy-the-falling-sky_-words-of-a-yanomami-shaman-the-belknap-press-of-harvard-university-press.pdf
Round table on ‘reporting on the Amazon’ with Katia Brasil, Tom Phillips and Jonathan Watts.
See the recording of the discussion here. Also below: links about and articles from Amazônia Real, founded by Katia Brasil – an independent and investigative journalism agency that gives visibility to the populations and issues of the Amazon region – and Sumaúma, founded by five journalists including Jonathan Watts — a trilingual rainforest-based news platform that will report on the world in a new way * Based on the frontline of the war against nature * Amplifying forest voices, * Investigating forest crimes, * Exploring alternatives to destructive extractivism and * Putting life, not markets, at the centre of values.
Katia Brasil, Amazônia Real.
Amazonia Real: who we are/quem somos
New parliamentary compositions, starting in 2023, indicate that the nine states of the region will advance anti environmental and anti-indigenous agendas and that Bolsonarism was consolidated based on the popular vote
Hutukara calls for investigation into hate crime against Yanomami in Boa Vista
Lawless sky is controlled by gold diggers
“The Territory” documentary conquers the world
The documentary Pisar Suavemente na Terra ( Stepping softly on the Earth ), by Brazilian/American director Marcos Colón, won the award for Best Cinematography at Filmambiente – International Environmental Film Festival.
“It is not the first time that our end has been prophesied; we buried all the prophets”, says Ailton Krenak
Jonathan Watts, Sumaúma
https://sumauma.com/
Sumaúma’s founders write: Our values can be summed up in two words: forest first. The forest – its nature and its people – needs to come before the market. This is an approach based on both cutting-edge climate science and traditional indigenous thinking. There are, however, powerful and violent threats from companies and corporations, from governments and politicians, from organized crime.
As journalists, we stand alongside forest peoples on the front lines of the war waged against nature. This war, according to Map Biomas, in 2021 killed 18 trees per second in the forest and, at this moment, it almost certainly kills a greater number. This war is forcing the butterflies to erase their colors and convert themselves into browns and grays, the tones of the burnt forest, in order to mimic and survive.
Read more and find out how to support Sumaúma here
Tom Phillips, Latin America correspondent, the Guardian.
12th Dec 2022, The Guardian: Revealed: Brazil goldminers carve illegal ‘Road to Chaos’ out of Amazon reserve
Link to a video recording of the round table session here
Fiona Frank
Coordinator, ‘For Dom, Bruno & the Amazon’
Halton Mill, Mill Lane, Halton LA2 6ND England
fiona@haltonmill.org.uk
The low carbon space to work, create, perform and learn.
