Author Archives: Barbara Crane Navarro - Rainforest Art Project

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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.

World Governments must recognise role of environmental human rights defenders in resisting climate change – Beyond COP26— Western Globe News

© Amnesty International / Richard Burton Environmental activists often silenced by governments across the world Open letter to COP26 President calling for the UK Government to lead recognition and protection of environmental human rights defenders ‘The UK’s voice has power. … Continue reading →

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Indigenous Peoples, Protests, and a Call to End the War on Nature – Beyond COP26 — HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Human Wrongs Watch (UN News)* — As millions took to the streets of cities around the world on Saturday 6 November 2021, demanding greater climate action, some countries taking part in the COP26 negotiations, made new pledges to invest in … Continue reading →

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Many established gold buyers in wealthy countries; Switzerland, Canada and the U.K. bought 72% of Brazil’s gold exports and are contributing to the violence, deforestation, pollution and deadly mercury contamination associated with illegal gold mining! – If you buy or wear gold, it could be connected to you, too! 

« My ancestors died from the same thing I am now facing; illegal gold mining and the epidemics the miners propagate. Gold miners bring Covid-19 xawara and violence. » Dario Kopenawa Yanomami In early November, 2021, Dario Kopenawa Yanomami learned of the … Continue reading →

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The consumerism that destroys life is also the cause of the environmental emergency — Hawkins Bay Dispatch

Decades ago, corporations and governments invented the traits we now call ‘human nature.’ COP26 has shown ‘consumers’ that buying something ‘different’ is not working. 13 November 2021 | Graham Peebles | Euroasia Review The natural environment has been poisoned, vandalized and trashed in … Continue reading →

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Top Brazil gold exporter leaves a trail of criminal probes and illegal mines — Ned Hamson’s Second Line View of the News

Brazilian gold exporter BP Trading accounted for 10% of the country’s exports of the precious metal in 2019 and 2020, having purchased it from companies prosecuted for buying illegal gold. Most of the illegal mines are concentrated in Indigenous territories, … Continue reading →

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COP-26: « La nostra resistenza collettiva per difendere i nostri territori ancestrali fa parte di una proposta urgente e necessaria delle popolazioni indigene che si allinea con la nostra richiesta di proteggere almeno l’80% della foresta pluviale amazzonica entro il 2025 » È ora di « Exit Amazon Oil & Gas » – « Esci da petrolio e gas dall’Amazzonia » e da altre industrie estrattive! 

I leader indigeni di tutta l’Amazzonia hanno adottato una risoluzione per proteggere l’80% della foresta pluviale entro il 2025 al Congresso mondiale sulla conservazione dell’IUCN nel settembre 2021. Oggi, alla COP-26, continuano a chiedere ai governi, alle imprese e alle … Continue reading →

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Five things you need to know about the Glasgow Climate Pact — Mohammed Abbasi

Simon Lewis, UCL and Mark Maslin, UCL The COP26 UN climate talks in Glasgow have finished and the gavel has come down on the Glasgow Climate Pact agreed by all 197 countries. If the 2015 Paris Agreement provided the framework … Continue reading →

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COP26 – while some progress has been made, a current policy world of 2.6C or 2.7C warming is still one with potentially catastrophic impacts on human and natural systems. — nuclear-news

Analysis: Do COP26 promises keep global warming below 2C?  Business Green 11th Nov 2021, Depending on whom you ask, the COP26 climate summit may seem like the best of times or the worst of times. On the one hand, reports … Continue reading →

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COP-26: «Nuestra resistencia colectiva a defender nuestros territorios ancestrales es parte de una propuesta urgente y necesaria de los pueblos indígenas que se alinea con nuestro llamado a proteger al menos el 80% de la selva amazónica para el 2025.» Ahora es el momento de « Exit Amazon Oil & Gas »-« ¡Sal del petróleo y el gas de la Amazonía » y otras industrias extractivas! 

Los líderes indígenas de la Amazonía adoptaron una resolución para proteger el 80% de la selva tropical para 2025 en el Congreso Mundial de la Naturaleza de la UICN en septiembre de 2021. Hoy, en la COP-26, continúan haciendo un … Continue reading →

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COP26: Due mondi opposti che si parlano sopra – o che non si sono neanche mai incontrati — Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Resilience – PASTRES

Photo credit: Ian Scoones Alla conferenza delle Nazioni Unite sui cambiamenti climatici del 2021 a Glasgow, muoversi tra la scivolosità delle grandi aziende, in quella che viene ufficialmente chiamata la “Blue Zone” (uno spazio gestito dalle Nazioni Unite che ospita … Continue reading →

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