Politics and Poetics of the Rainforest

Indigenous Amazonian art articulates the political resistance of communities from the region in the face of the current ecological crisis. The modes of thought that contribute to a balanced relationship between humans and non-humans in the Amazon River Basin run counter to a form of extractivism based upon the objectification of the natural wold, which drives Indigenous peoples out of their ancestral territories.

The artists from the Amazon reveal a dialogic exchange between different beings–plants, animals, humans and spirits–who converge into a multispecies socio-politics. The ties binding diverse forms of existence turn each Indigenous person into an activist working to defend her/his mode of living, knowledge, language and memories, at risk due to foreign incursions: scourges such as human trafficking, drug trafficking, mining, oil extraction, illegal logging and agribusiness that plague the region.