« When a human being dies, his ghost does not carry any of his goods onto the sky’s back, even if he is very greedy. The things he made or acquired are left on earth and only torment the living by rekindling the longing for his presence.

We are different from the white people and our thought is other. Among them, when a father dies, his children are happy to tell each other: ‘We are going to share his merchandise and his money and keep them for ourselves!’

Our real goods are the things of the forest: its waters, fish, game, trees and fruit. Not merchandise! This is why as soon as someone dies we make all the objects he kept disappear.  We grind up his bead necklaces; we burn his hammock, his arrows, his quiver, his gourds, and his feather ornaments.

The stones, waters, earth, mountains, sky and sun are immortal like the xapiri spirits. These are things that … we call parimi, eternal.

Humans’ breath of life is very short. We live a short time.»

• Yanomami spokesperson and shaman Davi Kopenawa

Gold mining site in indigenous territory

Gold mining and the indiscriminate use of mercury to ferret out gold are turning swaths of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems into a nightmarish moonscape! 

Worldwide, illegal gold mining is more lucrative for criminal organizations, drug cartels, guerrilla groups and mafias than drug trafficking. For criminals posing as precious metals dealers, gold is the perfect medium for laundering illicit money from other illegal activities since illegal gold looks exactly like legal gold and the proceeds from selling it can be placed in the bank… 

PLEASE DO NOT BUY OR USE GOLD!

As much as 75% of the gold extracted each year is used for jewelry, watches and other vain and futile status symbols sold by corporations in the luxury industry as well as discount retailers worldwide.  

Tens of thousands of rainforest trees must be uprooted, hundreds of tons of soil mined and mixed with dozens of tons of toxic environmental pollutants that contaminate indigenous lands for that one special gold ring…

Please give gifts that don’t destroy nature and the lives of indigenous peoples!

Yanomami community dwellings in the forest – photo: Bruno Kelly/Reuters

Please watch this 48 second film of the light installation « Yanomami shamans struggle against xawara smoke of epidemics » included here:

THE EXHIBITION IS PROLONGED – “Pas de Cartier !” – Yanomami and Trees – Gold Mining and Gold Luxury items / COVID-19 propagated by Gold Miners…now through November 12th 2021

Yanomami hunting dog and puppies in the communal house, Alto Orinoco, Amazonas, Venezuela – photo: Barbara Crane Navarro

Please also listen to the Yanomami shaman’s message:

LISTEN TO THE YANOMAMI SHAMAN’S MESSAGE

*The Yanomami shaman being quoted is referring to the destruction to the rainforest and indigenous lives since the “conquest of the Americas” by white (non-native) Europeans which began 520 years ago….

This destruction is ongoing and constantly damaging more Yanomami territory and degrading more Yanomami lives. In 1993, gold miners massacred 16 Yanomami in the village of Haximú. In May 2021, heavily armed gold miners attacked Yanomami daily for over a week in the village of Palimiú and the village of Maikohipi in June.

Gold miners are also propagating Covid-19 among many indigenous populations in all nine countries in the Amazon region.