Short Abstract:

Although the indigenous peoples who live in threatened habitats such as Amazonia are key to creating effective responses to the global climate and environment crisis, it is unlikely that they will have a strong presence in COP-26, the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Glasgow in November 2021. This project aims to provide three outstanding Amerindian defenders of such environments with a platform to make their voices heard during and after the conference. These women lead their communities and represent them in an ongoing struggle to defend their lands and rights as they confront environmental degradation and destruction. In addition, several of the leaders we hope will participate in the project are artists and cultural producers. The aim is to create a space for them to use artistic means of communication as part of a process of fostering dialogue and proximity between the Amerindian forest-dwellers, members of the university, scientists and environmentalists, and the wider public in Scotland and the UK. The COVID-19 situation in South America and the entry requirements for visitors to the UK makes it impossible to organise a visit during COP-26, but the stages of this project, timed to occur before and after the summit will give greater visibility to the participants and facilitate longer term relationships between them and partners in Scotland.

Long Abstract:

The three women leaders are internationally known for their work as environmental activists and/or activist-artists. Olinda Silvano is Shipibo-Conibo artist (Peru). She currently leads a shanty-town community of Shipibo-Conibo economic migrants in Lima. Glicéria Tupinambá lives in a region of Brazil once covered by the Atlantic Forest and participates in her people’s fight to regain occupied land and reforest it. Francineia Fontes Baniwa is of the Baniwa people, from Sao Gabriel de Cachoeira in the Northwest Amazon region of Brazil, currently in Rio studying for a doctorate in anthropology at the Museu Nacional. She is a photographer and activist.