Amazonian Activists Highlight Slow Violence Through Art 

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. This quarter (Spring 2020) the group is reading Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. This post reflects and extends our virtual discussion.

 

Amazonian Activists Highlight Slow Violence Through Art 

By: Karey, Julie, Malene, and Alyssa

 

The current globalized economy pushes the externalities of profit seeking endeavors onto the poor of the Global South for the benefit of rich, often white, nations. Nixon calls this phenomena slow violence because the impact of these actions are not immediate and highly visible, but rather the consequences play out over decades and are internalized in the body which cause them to go unnoticed (Nixon 2011). Exploitation of the Amazon rain forest and its inhabitants by global corporations has led to rapid deforestation and pollution, inflicting immediate and slow violence on the area. The rain forest is vital to regulating global climate, and more importantly, to the people who rely on its resources to survive. Indigenous peoples of the Amazon (or Amazonia) use art to convey the effects of this slow violence on themselves and their communities, in much the same way as writers do as described by Nixon (2011). 

 

These artists do so in an effort to protect their lives and land from those who benefit from its destruction. In the Amazon, industries like agriculture and mining are causes of slow violence. Within the agricultural industry, pesticides play a major role in harming the environment, particularly because they prevent the growth of the more vulnerable species within the tropical forest. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: Matt Zimmerman.

 

Surprisingly, it is mostly small farmers who are overusing pesticides since larger corporations are under the public eye.These pesticides also harm aquatic organisms (Andrus, 2013). Pesticides, in addition to being a detriment to the land, can also cause health effects to anyone exposed to them (Health Effects of Pesticides, 2019). Mining as an industry within the Amazon causes deforestation and significant impacts to water drainage in the area. It causes pollutants to enter the water which affects the food supply and harms local communities. It also creates conflict between indigenous communities and miners (Amazon Mining, n.d.). These violences have created a need for indigenous voices to be heard. 

 

The indigenous people of Amazonia have demonstrated the effects of slow violence through many different art mediums, one of which includes painting. Denilson Baniwa has showcased his paintings all over the world, using metaphor and visual aids to communicate his relationship between him, his tribe, and the colonial forces that have ravaged his homeland (Menezes, 2020). Baniwa’s work stems from a movement known as “anthropophagous”, that attempts to untangle colonial logic through ideas of cosmogony (Denilson, n.d.). Some of Baniwa’s paintings include images of him holding fruit close to his heart, a representation of the use of pesticides in his homeland (Menezes, 2020). In addition to paintings and art installations, there are many indigenous singers and bands that portray the acts of slow violence that the native people of Amazonia have endured as a result of colonial invasion. One of these singers includes Djuena Tikuna, who has released albums that incorporate other singers and dancers from Amazonia (Menezes, 2020). Both of these artists utilize their work to advocate for the protection of their tribes and their land. Baniwa accomplishes this by showcasing his work all over the world, and Tikuna by performing at concerts to bring awareness to movements involving the protection of the land from colonial forces (Menezes, 2020). 

 

Activists groups from the global north stand in solidarity with the Amazonia people. The Sierra Club is one of those groups and the story that is told and therefore the dominant story that people in the north hear is different from the story told by the Amazonian people. The stress is put on big ecological disasters such as the recent forest fire in the Amazon (Carr 2019) rather than the slow violence that is impending on the native people and land. Art and writing is such a vital part of broadening the awareness of slow violence because they can really tell the whole story and paint a full picture. When these outlets come from the voices of the people that are suffering the message is even louder. The hard part is making that the dominant narrative in the global north where a neo-liberal agenda seeps into nearly every facet of life. 

 

Works Cited:

Amazon mining. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/amazon/amazon_threats/other_threats/amazon_mining/ 

 

Andrus, A. (2013, August 21). Pesticide problems in the Amazon. Retrieved from https://news.mongabay.com/2013/08/pesticide-problems-in-the-amazon/ 

 

Carr C.(2019, August 23). The Sierra Club Rises In Solidarity With The People of Brazil to Defend the Amazon, from https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2019/09/sierra-club-rises-solidarity-people-brazil-defend-amazon 

 

Denilson Baniwa. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2020, from https://www.biennaleofsydney.art/artists/denilson-baniwa/ 

 

Health Effects of Pesticides. (2019, August 15). Retrieved from https://www.pan-uk.org/health-effects-of-pesticides/ 

 

Menezes, D. (2020, January 8). Indigenous artists from the Amazon use art for environmental advocacy. Retrieved April 22, 2020, from https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/indigenous-artists-from-the-amazon-use-art-for-environmental-advocacy/ 

 

Nixon, R. (2011). Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Harvard University Press