1 / 5       Delsio Barbosa's gravesite on St. Elena Ranch where he was shot and killed instantly while fishing along the border of the farm and the indigenous reservation Teykue. The rancher claims the boy was trespassing and since the incident has been living freely in a nearby city without judicial recourse. Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, March, 2013. © Nadia Shira Cohen 2015.
2 / 5       Ava Tape Rendy'i, the Cacique of Teykue Reservation sits among the corn stalks on the St. Elena Ranch that a group of Guarani friends and family have taken over in response to the ranchers killing of a young indigenous boy named Delsio Barbosa. Delsio was shot and killed instantly while fishing along the border of the farm and the indigenous reservation Teykue. The rancher claims the boy was trespassing and since the incident has been living freely in a nearby city without judicial recourse. Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, March, 2013. © Paulo Siqueira 2015.
3 / 5       Dacio Queiroz Silva's cows on his ranch Fronteira in Antonio João, Mato Grosso do Sul. Dacio has been fighting a 15 year battle with a group of Guarani who claim heritage to his land, which has been marked and ratified by FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Índio). However he has not received any offer of compensation for his loss by the government. Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, March, 2013. © Paulo Siqueira 2015.
4 / 5       During the visit to the exhibition Terra Vermelha by Nadia Shira Cohen and Paulo Siqueira. © Stefania Biamonti/FPmag.
5 / 5       During the visit to the exhibition Terra Vermelha by Nadia Shira Cohen and Paulo Siqueira. © Stefania Biamonti/FPmag.

Terra Vermelha

It's an extremely complex and delicate situation that is shown by the spouses Nadia Shira Cohen and Paulo Siqueira through the work Terra Vermelha, exhibited at the former Chiesa di San Cristoforo within the Themed Area: Food that Kills. The project in fact leads the visitors into the heart of Brazil, putting them in front of a bloody conflict that, for years, sees the indigenous people of the Guaraní in contrast with some wealthy livestock breeders. At the centre of the clash, the rights of certain lands in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which has always belonged to the Guaraní, but in fact gradually expropriated (although unofficially) to enable local farmers to graze cattle and multiply their revenue and, with them, those of the country. A real affront to the indigenous population, which has seen the inheritance of these lands taken away from them despite the fact that the possession, was their sanctioned right, signed and approved by the FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Indio). A succession of weak and never applied laws, joined by the deafening silence that still surrounds the issue, then, did the rest, displeasing everybody and determining the escalation of the clash. As the two authors explain «The rich farmers, whose families were encouraged by the Brazilian government to settle in the same lands in the nineties, have so far not received any compensation from the government in office. They have not given up without a fight. They have hired private armed guards, many from Paraguay, who pull the trigger first and then ask questions, then disappear easily across the border or face a few criminal penalties, as a result of a corrupt and dysfunctional judicial system. Considering that the land of the ancestors, while covering just over 12% of Brazil, is amongst the most fertile areas in terms of agriculture and richest mineral deposits of the Amazon, in the next few years the struggle will become increasingly fierce, while the country, in the background, continues towards its goal of becoming an economic global superpower».
A work that then tries to pick up the threads of a dispute difficult to resolve, and with alarming prospects, with images characterized by strong structures and extremely gloomy tones, that are well suited to the type of narrative proposal. Who pays the highest price in this tangled story are in fact the Guaraní, who see languish into the nothing of the current regulatory framework – if not suffocating in blood – every attempt to claim the land, which has always belonged to their ancestors. And it is on this indigenous population that the two authors’ work is mainly focused on, giving us a composite picture able to respect the complexity and to tell us of the dramatic consequences of this situation. Besides suggesting, between the lines, how too often the term indigenous risks becoming a synonymous of series B people and determining the fate of an entire community that, in fact, should be entitled to the same rights and the same consideration as everybody else. [ S. B. ]

- - -

TERRA VERMELHA
by Nadia Shira Cohen and Paulo Siqueira
Ex Chiesa di San Cristoforo | 10-11 / 17-18 / 24-25 October 2015
admission fee: 10,00 € (valid for the visit to all other exhibitions)

– – –

[ INTERNAL RESOURCES ]
FFE2015 on FPmag
[ video ] Paulo Siqueira (ITA)
[ video ] Nadia Shira Cohen (ENG)

[ EXTERNAL RESOURCES ]
Food that kills
Festival of Ethical Photography
Paulo Siqueira
Nadia Shira Cohen

published on 2015-10-12 in NEWS / EXHIBITIONS

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editor in chief Sandro Iovine | sandro.iovine@fpmagazine.eu - senior writer Stefania Biamonti - web developer Salvatore Picciuto | info@myphotoportal.com - linguistic coordination Nicky Alexander - translations Nicky Alexander, Rachele Frosini - contributor Davide Bologna, Mimmo Cacciuni Angelone, Laura Marcolini, Stefano Panzeri, Pio Tarantini, Salvo Veneziano - local Lazio correspondent Dario Coletti local Sardinian correspondent Salvatore Ligios - local Sicilian correspondent Salvo Veneziano - editorial office via Spartaco, 36 20135 Milano MI | redazione@fpmagazine.eu - phone +39 02 49537170 - copyright © 2015 FPmag - FPmag is a pubblication of Machia Press Publishing srl a socio unico, via Cristoforo Gluck, 3 20135 Milano MI - VAT no. 07535000967 C.F. (TAX code) 07535000967 - Copyright © 2015 FPmag - Registered at Tribunale di Milano No. 281 on the 9th September 2014

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