Gabriel Uchida
Resistance and protest are at the core of being an indigenous person, especially nowadays in Brazil.
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Contribution focuses on the series Travelling Through the Territory by Brazilian photographer, Gabriel Uchida, in collaboration with the Uru-eu-wau-wau. In the interview, his experience living and collaborating with the Native peoples of the Amazon, the political climate in Brazil and the unsettling feeling towards the destruction of the Amazon are discussed. Brazil’s historical narrative has largely situated itself in contraposition to Indigenous narratives, which are often marginalized and submerged to a time immemorial. Illegal land invasions, death threats and injustice are on the rise, heightened by the damaging rhetoric of President Bolsonaro. Today, the Indigenous population is inseparable from resistance and protest, photography lends itself as a tool for self-defense and preservation. Besides cameras, the Internet is largely accessible, compact (smartphones) and provides direct contact with global audiences, contributing to the circulation of information and unbiased narratives.
- Keywords: amazon, Brazil, indigenous, marginal narratives, uru-eu-wau-wau
Louise M. Hisayasu (1991, Sāo Paulo) is an interdisciplinary researcher based in Berlin, Germany, interested in discourses around decolonial theory, marginal narratives and memory. Her project, “Arquivo Tadaima” makes space for Japanese-Brazilian narratives, by investigating the (trans)formation of cultures through a critical reflection on migration and identity. She has recently completed her postgraduate degree in the fields of media studies and art & technology from the Erasmus Mundus – Media Arts Cultures joint masters degree
Gabriel Uchida (33 years old) was born in Valinhos – São Paulo (Brazil). Uchida graduated in Journalism and started taking photos in 2008. After that he’s worked in several different places like Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, USA, Germany, Turkey, Ethiopia and Namibia. His photos were already published in more than 30 countries and he had exhibitions in Germany, Ethiopia and Brazil. In 2018 Uchida won the first place photo award at the World Water Forum and also at the “Ojo a La Amazonia – FAO/ONU”. Since 2016 he’s been living and traveling around the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest to photograph indigenous peoples and environmental issues.
- Agência IGBE. 2018. “10% of population concentrate nearly half of Brazilian income.” April 11. Available online here.
- Andrade, Rodrigo de Oliveira. 2019. “Alarming Surge in Amazon Fires Prompts Global Outcry”. Nature. Available online here. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02537-0
- “Quem São?” 2018. Povos Indígenas No Brasil. Available online here.
- Rabben, Linda. 2003. Brazil’s Indians and the Onslaught of Civilization. Washington: University of Washington Press.
- Watts, Jonathan. 2019. “G7 Can’t Turn A Blind Eye To Ecocide In The Amazon.” The Guardian online.
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