Edivan Fulni-ô - Maraká Music
Over the last few months, I’ve been connecting and collaborating with some incredible Indigenous artists and musicians. It’s the result of these collaborations I wanted to share with you.
I’ve not long returned from New York Climate Week ( NYCW ), where I was fortunate to create work alongside a number of talented Indigenous musicians from Brazil who shared their eclectic music at the event - Maraká, within the “Our Village” space hosted and produced by the charity If Not Us Then Who? ( INUTW )
I’ve also had the privilege of creating INUTW’s first zine alongside the amazing Indigenous creative, Genilson Guajajara, showcasing his very moving, and emotive story - Ritual. These zines act as a platform for sharing stories from the inspirational and talented storytellers If Not Us Then Who? and I are fortunate to work alongside. I hope you enjoy looking through the work.
Maraká Music
Edivan Fulni-ô - Maraká Music
For a long time, we were forced into silence, to not sing, express our culture, or ancestral traditions. Today we transform our fight into a melody. We know that our music tells our story.” - Eric Terena, artist, musician, activist, journalist and founding member of Mídia Indígena ( Indigenous communication collective )
Eric Terena - Maraká Music
NYCW is the largest annual climate event of its kind, bringing together numerous events and activities across the City of New York – in person, hybrid and online. Each year, business leaders, political change makers, local decision takers and civil society representatives of all ages and backgrounds, from all over the world, gather to drive the transition, speed up progress, and champion change.
Maraká saw a select group of individual Indigenous artists who sing traditional and electronic music come together to perform under one roof, at the Helen Mills Theatre in Manhattan, NYC.
Indigenous peoples make up 5% of the world population though are responsible for protecting over 80% of our planet's biodiversity. These communities fight endlessly to protect their ancestral lands, and the fragile biomes that are so important to this planet and us all. This fight is not without threat, in 2021 alone, as per the Global Witness report, 200 land and environmental defenders were killed worldwide – nearly four per week. Significantly, more than 40 percent of the documented killings were of Indigenous people, who account for no more than five percent of the global population. The Bro Mc’s, a Brazilian rap group due to play “Maraka” this week, tragically had to fly home from New York days prior to the gig, as they received the news that two of their elders had been murdered by a christian evangelical for practising their traditional beliefs.
Arnaldo Terena - Maraká Music
Prior to the performance itself I met with the artists in a NYC photographic studio, where we collaborated closely on a series of studio portraits that highlighted their individual creativity and self representation. Viewing these images alongside each other we hoped the viewer could feel a sense of their communal coming together at this significant moment.
“Singing is our identity. Singing unites all Indigenous Peoples in one song. When they hear the call of maraca and Avai rattles, all Indigenous Peoples come together. It is when the ritual of our resistance begins.” - Djuena Tikuna
Djuena Tikuna - Maraká Music
“I see Indigenous art as a powerful tool of struggle. To occupy spaces of visibility, bringing these narratives, showing the realities of different Brazilian peoples. Because we have a very large diversity and a gigantic plurality of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. And each community brings their own narrative. The collective struggle take place through the search for the demarcation of territories and other constitutional rights of Indigenous Peoples. But behind this great struggle, there are also the local struggles of each Indigenous People.” - Edivan Fulni-ô
“Maraká Music is the sound of our maracá. Our traditional instrument, which is used for our prayers, for our daily lives, it’s the symbol of why we are making this union happen. In the midst of differences, inequalities among ourselves, Indigenous Peoples - our realities, the invasions, our struggles, we found in music a way to come together and to try strengthen this visibility even further.” - Eric Terena
Djuena Tikuna and Diego Janatã - Maraka Music
Maraká is the beginning, a vision, that Eric and all involved hope to grow, looking to be inclusive of artists from diverse Indigenous backgrounds - a powerful creative tool for the struggle.
Look to follow more of the work from these artists and support them in the climate fight. - Eric Terena, Edivan Fulni-ô, Arnaldo Terena, Djuena Tikuna, and Diego Janatã.
RITUAL
A new exciting and collaboratively made zine from If Not Us Then Who?
Zine - A small-circulation of self-published printed work with original texts and images.
I am very fortunate to work alongside some incredible Indigenous photographers at the organisation If Not Us Then Who? ( INUTW ). Over the last months I have worked closely with my friend, and talented storyteller - Genilson Guajajara, creating a zine and a platform for his work - “Ritual”, it’s been a reciprocal process that we have both learned from.
These beautifully designed, limited edition zines are a collaboration between If Not Us Then Who? and the selected artist. The work is carefully curated and the artist and community are a vital part of the process as the work is designed and prepared for print.
We hope to produce a selection of these zines through the year, all as limited edition runs and in this same format, so that those interested may consider collecting them as they are released. Profits are to be shared 50/50 between the artist and our Indigenous led organisation.
“The Tenetehar, now more commonly known as the Guajajara people, have suffered from serious and accumulative negative impacts to their lands from extractivism for generations, many of them irreversible. Historically they have also faced restrictions on their culture, practice’s and sacred rituals, which are integral for their self-assertion and identity.
Vitally though, one important and particularly emotive ritual still remains for the Guajajara and this is the story of that ritual: The Festival of the Moqueado - which takes place within the Amazon Rainforest, in a riverside community, along the Rio Pindaré, Maranhão State, Brazil.
This is home, where my family and my community live, a setting alive with the sounds of village life, the forest and all its inhabitants in close proximity, whilst the Rio Pindaré gently emanates in the background. It’s from this unique setting that I seek to share this story with you, giving an insight into the essence of our people.” - Genilson Guajajara.
This wonderful zine is now available online. We have produced a limited run and we very much hope you may consider purchasing one, in order to support Genilson and his communities fight. Their fight is very much ours.
Thank you so very much for following and being a part of the work I share here on Substack. It feels like a great antidote to social media, a slower and more informative way of sharing.
Take care and speak soon
Joel.