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.

Aboriginal people in Australia recover Daintree rainforest — Stigmatis

Australia’s Daintree rainforest was returned to its Aboriginal owners as part of the government’s effort to cede control of the world’s oldest rainforest, officials said Wednesday (29.09.2021). Daintree National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site containing a 135-million-year-old rainforest, was … Continue reading →

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Indigenous people in Brazil at risk of losing their right to land… — msamba

King’s Academic warns how the state decision could set a precedent for many other cases unless overruled by the Supreme Court Land reserves occupied by indigenous groups in Brazil are at risk of being lost because of a constitutional decision … Continue reading →

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COMERCIANTES DE OURO – A MORTE DA NATUREZA por mercadorias de ouro e diamante – A ARTE da lavagem ecológica do natureza por os mercadores da morte dos povos indígenas … em suas próprias palavras … Por favor, BOICOTE O OURO! 

Na “Utopia” de Thomas More, publicada em 1516, ouro e pedras preciosas não têm valor. Na verdade, eles têm o peso do sangue, da escravidão e da loucura humana … A Arte da Manipulação:O conceito corporativo de patrocínio artístico foi … Continue reading →

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PF combate funcionamento de garimpos ilegais na terra indígena Munduruku, no Pará. — Ecoamazônia

Polícia Federal deflagra a Operação Bezerro de Ouro III, em Itaituba/PA, para dar prosseguimento a investigações que apuram funcionamento de garimpos ilegais em terras indígenas. Itaituba/PA – A Polícia Federal (PF) deflagrou hoje (9/9) a Operação Bezerro de Ouro III. Essa … Continue reading →

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Fears for Brazil’s and Peru’s most isolated tribes if illegal road isn’t stopped — Ecoamazônia

NGOs take legal action against an almost 100 km route cleared through the Amazon The first time I visited Colonia Angamos, a border-post-turned-tiny-town in the far western Amazon, was in a hydroplane that put down on the River Yaquerana. On … Continue reading →

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Nearly 30% of Brazil’s gold exports are illegal, report says – Reuters —

Nearly 30% of Brazil’s gold exports are illegal, report says – Reuters https://ift.tt/3Dvd5tc Nearly 30% of Brazil’s gold exports are illegal, report says  Reuters Superforest via “deforestation” – Google News https://ift.tt/2tI2HiE Nearly 30% of Brazil’s gold exports are illegal, report says – … Continue reading →

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Podcast com Ailton Krenak: A Terra está com febre! —

“A Terra está com febre!” A frase é do líder indígena, escritor e ambientalista Ailton Krenak, convidado do 36º episódio do Política ao Quadrado. Além de trazer reflexões sobre o custo do atual modelo de consumo e de desenvolvimento para o … Continue reading →

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MERCHANTS of GOLD – The DEATH of NATURE for Gold and Diamond Merchandise – The ART of Greenwashing by the Merchants of the Death of Nature and Indigenous Peoples…in their own words… PLEASE BOYCOTT GOLD! – UPDATE 2023!

The GENOCIDE of the YANOMAMI for Gold and Diamond Merchandise – 2023 “Things have been bad since 2015, when the price of gold started to rise. The life of the Yanomami is indexed to the price of gold”, says anthropologist … Continue reading →

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Teachable moment: Decolonization and Indigenous Liberation— LANDBACK Friends

Yesterday I wrote why decolonization and Indigenous liberation is the only way to mitigate the damages done from unrestrained fossil fuel extraction and burning. From a lifetime’s experience I know just saying something like that doesn’t register for most people. … Continue reading →

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LandBack Round Robin: Ethnic studies so history will not be erased — Ned Hamson’s Second Line View of the News

Originally posted on Educating for Future Democracy Collaborative: It is a paradox that education is crucial for healing, in this case healing from the intergenerational traumas suffered by Indigenous peoples in the lands called the United States and Canada. And … Continue reading →

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