THRIVING PEOPLES, THRIVING PLACES: Poster campaign highlights the contributions of Indigenous women to global biodiversity by Nia Tero / Amplifier / courtesy of INSP.ngo all artwork designed by Tracie Ching breakouts by Suzanne Hanney, from online sources
We are in a critical moment. In the midst of an ongoing global pandemic that is leaving no family untouched, compounded by increasingly extreme weather events linked to climate change, a unique global art project is shining a light on voices essential to the ecological solutions and collective healing we seek: Indigenous women. "Thriving Peoples, Thriving Places," the second collaboration between Indigenous-focused not-for-profit Nia Tero and design lab Amplifier, will launch on International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples Monday, August 9. The global exhibit includes six original portraits commissioned from Washington DC-based artist and illustrator Tracie Ching. The art will be available digitally as well as at public art events in cities such as Seattle (US), Washington DC (US), New York City (US), São Paulo (Brazil), and London (UK). The goal of the project is to at once celebrate Indigenous women as stewards of biodiversity across Earth and to prompt action amongst an engaged global audience.
COVERSTORY
The nine Indigenous women at the center of this project provide robust examples of real-life action to engage in to strive for the health and future of the planet. They are from communities spanning the globe, from the Philippines and New Zealand, to the Brazilian Amazon to Scandinavia, to the global north, embodying Indigenous experience and carrying generational knowledge and inherited responsibilities that come with that. These celebrated leaders include:
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• Sônia Guajajara (Guajajara), an activist in Brazil and leader of Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), which brings together 305 ethnicities around the agenda of Indigenous rights in the region. • Nara Baré (Baré), a Brazillian activist who was the first woman to assume the general coordination of the largest indigenous organization in the country, the Coalition of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB). • Célia Xakriabá (Xakriabá), a Brazilian activist leading a new generation of female Indigenous leaders in the battle against the destruction
THIS PAGE: Vicky Tauli Corpuz, Kankanaey Igorot, Besao - Filipino activist and development consultant. OPPOSITE PAGE: (from L to R) Sônia Guajajara, Guajajara, Araribóia - Brazilian activist; Célia Xakriabá, Xakriabá - Brazilian activist; Nara Baré, Baré, Rio Negro - Brazilian activist.
of Brazil’s forests both in the Amazon and the lesser known Cerrado, a savannah that covers a fifth of the country. • Vicky Tauli Corpuz (Kankanaey Igorot), an activist who not only helped organize the Igorot student movement in Manila in the 1970s and the Indigenous Peoples’ Movement in the Cordillera, but actively participated in the drafting, negotiations, and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
