NO to the « Time Limit Trick » – An aberration!

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Barbara Crane Navarro - Rainforest Art Project

NO to the Time Limit Trick!

« ‘Time frame’ is a path of the enemies of the forest against my people. ‘Time frame’ for me means stealing more Yanomami land. Stealing more from our lands that have already been demarcated, ratified and registered by the Brazilian government. » 

– Spokesperson and shaman Yanomami Davi Kopenawa


Demarcation of Indigenous lands NOW!

Since August 22nd, over 6,000 native people from 176 indigenous nations have gathered outside Brazil’s Supreme Court in Brasilia to demand that the justices rule in their favor and reject the time limit date of 1988, adopted by the Bolsonaro government in 2016 and promoted by the agribusiness, cattle ranching, logging and gold mining sectors. 

The legal appeal by the Xokleng people of Santa Catarina state, maintaining that the « time frame » is an overly narrow interpretation of Indigenous rights that recognizes only the lands occupied by native communities at the time Brazil’s constitution was ratified in 1988, is the case that is now being debated in the Supreme Court.

Xokleng communities were forced off their ancestral lands by European settlers over a century ago. If the case is decided in favor of the Xokleng and their land is restored, 830 farmers face eviction from homesteads on land originally stolen from the Xokleng by their mainly German ancestors.

If, however, the « time frame » – the « milestone thesis » limit for Indigenous land claims is upheld in court it would set a precedent for the repudiation of Indigenous rights which the far-right President has been promoting since his election. He has stated that Indigenous peoples have too much land, obstructing the expansion of business interests and extractive industries.

Satellite photos show clearly that Indigenous reserves contain the most protected, intact forest areas in Brazil:

According to the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples: « If the Supreme Court accepts the so-called… ‘time frame’ argument in its ruling on land demarcation, it could legitimize violence against Indigenous peoples and inflame conflicts in the Amazon rainforest and other areas. »

Indigenous people at the « Struggle for Life » camp hold banners proclaiming « Bolsonaro Out! » and « Indigenous territory is life » and « Our history doesn’t begin in 1988. We have resisted for more than 12,000 years! »

The judgment on the issue of the “time frame” of the demarcation of Indigenous Lands has now been suspended until September 1st. 

THE MOBILIZATION CONTINUES! Indigenous peoples from all over Brazil are still gathered at the « Struggle for Life » camp in Brasília against the « Marco Temporal » and in defense of their rights!

More information about the activities organized by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil are here: 

https://apiboficial.org/apib/?lang=en

You can help them by donating financial resources to maintain the camp during this additional week of mobilization! Thank you!

Here is the link in English and Portuguese:

https://apiboficial.org/apoie/?lang=en

About Barbara Crane Navarro - Rainforest Art Project

I'm a French artist living near Paris. From 1968 to 1973 I studied at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, then at the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California, for my BFA. My work for many decades has been informed and inspired by time spent with indigenous communities. Various study trips devoted to the exploration of techniques and natural pigments took me originally to the Dogon of Mali, West Africa, and subsequently to Yanomami communities in Venezuela and Brazil. Over many years, during the winters, I studied the techniques of traditional Bogolan painting. Hand woven fabric is dyed with boiled bark from the Wolo tree or crushed leaves from other trees, then painted with mud from the Niger river which oxidizes in contact with the dye. Through the Dogon and the Yanomami, my interest in the multiplicity of techniques and supports for aesthetic expression influenced my artistic practice. The voyages to the Amazon Rainforest have informed several series of paintings created while living among the Yanomami. The support used is roughly woven canvas prepared with acrylic medium then textured with a mixture of sand from the river bank and lava. This supple canvas is then rolled and transported on expeditions into the forest. They are then painted using a mixture of acrylic colors and Achiote and Genipap, the vegetal pigments used by the Yanomami for their ritual body paintings and on practical and shamanic implements. My concern for the ongoing devastation of the Amazon Rainforest has inspired my films and installation projects. Since 2005, I've created a perfomance and film project - Fire Sculpture - to bring urgent attention to Rainforest issues. To protest against the continuing destruction, I've publicly set fire to my totemic sculptures. These burning sculptures symbolize the degradation of nature and the annihilation of indigenous cultures that depend on the forest for their survival.
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21 Responses to  NO to the « Time Limit Trick » – An aberration!

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  19. Pingback: LAND BACK NOW! « Land for the Indigenous people has no commercial value, as in the private sense of civil possession. It is a relationship of identity, which includes spirituality and existence, and it is possible to affirm that there is no Indigenous c

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