Andujar tells the story without a sense of triumph – partly because she understands her role as ancillary to the work of local activists, partly because despite five decades of struggle, Andujar is unsure if the Yanomami find themselves in any safer a situation than when she first met them.
Currently, between 10,000 and 20,000 gold miners are roaming across Yanomami lands. Clashes with the local population are common. In 2012, gold miners massacred ‘dozens’ of Yanomami who refused to cede their land, and their presence has also been a factor in the widespread deforestation of the area. The new gold rush, activists claim, is being aided and abetted from the top of the Brazilian government: Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s controversial president since 2018, has spoken openly of overriding indigenous control of their own territories, and recently appointed an evangelical Christian missionary to oversee indigenous affairs. Just last week, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people warned of the decision’s “potential to cause genocide”.
“I am still very much involved in trying to defend them and their land because I know that their survival and their culture depends on the possibility of being able to go on living according to how they feel, their ability to live together as a people,” Andujar says. But she speaks with the weight of knowing that she may not live to see the Yanomami through the coming fight.
“I hope there will be other people who go on fighting even when I’m not around, and that the Yanomami will also learn to defend themselves in front of all the dangers they face,” she says. “I hope that this will go on even without me being around. That is all that I can hope for.”
Claudia Andujar, The Yanomami Struggle is currently closed but you can visit a micro-site with resources linked to the exhibition.
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