The Yanomami Struggle
Additional Resources
Texts and Selected Images
Learn More About the artists
Exhibition References
This exhibition and its accompanying texts have been informed by a number of critical sources as well as curatorial interviews. The curators of the exhibition would like to acknowledge and direct visitors and scholars to the following references:
Kopenawa, Davi, and Bruce Albert. The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman. Translated by Nicholas Elliott and Allison Dundy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013.
Instituto Socioambiental. “Yanomami.” Povos Indígenas no Brasil, 2019.
Andujar, Claudia. Catrimani Audio. Catrimani, Roraima, Brazil, 1974.
Kopenawa, Davi. Interview by Thyago Nogueira, 2022.
Andujar, Claudia, and Álvaro Machado. Yanomami: La Danse Des Images. Paris: MARVAL, 2007.
O Estado de S. Paulo. “Em Defensa Dos Yanomami.” April 4, 1975, Evening Edition edition.
Comissão Pró Yanomami (CCPY). Yanomami Report 82: Contact and Health Situation. São Paulo, Brazil: CCPY, 1982.
Andujar, Claudia, and Agustín Pérez Rubio. Marcados. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Fundación Malba – Universidad Nacional de las Artes (UNA), 2016.
Comissão Pró Yanomami (CCPY). Report of Activities. São Paulo, Brazil: CCPY, 1985.
Comissão Pró Yanomami (CCPY). Yanomami Urgente, Número 1. São Paulo, Brazil: CCPY, 1982.
Exhibition Tours
Exhibition tours with knowledgeable educators are free with admission to the exhibition and are available on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays:
Wednesdays at 12 pm, 2 pm, 4 pm
Fridays at 12 pm, 2 pm, 6 pm
Saturdays at 12 pm, 2 pm, 4 pm
Tours are first come, first served with admission to the exhibition.
FEB 4, MAR 4, & APR 8
In conjunction with the exhibition, this three-day series of events offers a platform for Yanomami and Indigenous voices, while exploring the contexts and themes of the exhibition, from the fight for Indigenous rights and sovereignty to environmental justice and the connections between art and activism. Panel conversations and events will feature Yanomami and other Indigenous artists and community-builders, including academics, policy-makers, and representatives of community organizations.
The UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights
Keep Learning and Get Involved
To learn more about the Yanomami, their history and current political goals, please visit the webpages of our exhibition partners in Brazil:
Hutukara Associação Yanomami
Instituto Socioambiental
SUMAÚMA
To learn more about how you can get involved in supporting the Yanomami, please visit:
Please consider following these photographers, filmmakers, and collectives:
Midia Índia
Rádio Yandê
Video nas Aldeias
ASCURI - Associação Cultural de Realizadores Indígenas
Núcleo Audiovisual Xapono Yanomami
Rede Cine Flecha
Centro de Mídia Kôkôjagoti
Coletivo Audiovisual Daje Kapap Eypi
Coletivo Beture
Coletivo Beya Xinã Bena
Coletivo Ijã Mytyli de Cinema Manoki e Myky
Coletivo Kuikuro de Cinema
Coletivo Povo Pankararu
Rede Wayuri
Kamikia Kisedjê
Samela Sateré Mawé
Takumã Kuikuro
Tukumã Pataxó
Brô MC’s
To learn more about Indigenous rights and movements in the Americas, please visit:
The Indigenous Peoples Power Project
Honor the Earth
Native Americans Rights Fund
Native Land Digital
NDN Collective
Water Protector Legal Collective
Reconciling Ways of Knowing
PBS’s Native American History and Life
The Native Memory Project
Intercontinental Cry
UNESCO Resources on Indigenous Peoples
Land Reparations & Indigenous Solidarity Toolkit from Resource Generation
First Light
Voluntary Land Taxes from the Native Governance Center
Beyond Land Acknowledgement Series from Native Governance Center
A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgement
A Self-Assessment from Native Governance Center
Questions about “Home” from Catalyst Project
The American Indian Community House (AICH) is a not-for-profit organization serving the needs of Native Americans residing in New York City. AICH was founded in 1969, by Native American volunteers as a community-based organization, mandated to improve the status of Native Americans, and to foster intercultural understanding.
Forge Project is a Native-led initiative centered on Indigenous art, decolonial education, and supporting leaders in culture, food security, and land justice. Located on the unceded homelands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok in Upstate New York, Forge Project works to upend political and social systems formed through generations of settler colonialism. Launched in 2021, Forge Project serves the social and cultural landscape of shared communities through a funded fellowship program for Indigenous culture workers, including those working in food and land justice, law and decolonial governance, and art.
Lenape Center has the mission of continuing Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland through community, culture, and the arts. Since 2009, Lenape Center based in Manhattan and led by Lenape elders has created programs, exhibitions, workshops, performances, symposia, land acknowledgment, and ceremonies to continue their Lenape presence. They push back against their erasure and seed the ground with Lenape consciousness for the next generations.
Bibliography and Additional Reading (By Subject)
Albert, Bruce, and Chandès Hervé. Yanomami: L’esprit de La Forêt. Paris, France: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, 2003.
Andujar, Claudia. Yanomami: Frente ao eterno. São Paulo, Brazil: Editora Praxis, 1980.
Andujar, Claudia, and Pietro Maria Bardi. Mitopoemas Yãnomam. São Paulo, Brazil: Olivetti do Brasil, 1978.
Borofsky, Robert. Yanomami: The Fierce Controversy and What We Can Learn From It. California Series in Public Anthropology. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 2005.
Casaldáliga, Pedro, Pedro Tierra, and Martin Coplas. Missa Da Terra Sem Males. Rio de Janiero, Brazil: Tempo e Presença, 1980.
Golden, Tim. “Talk About Culture Shock: Ant People in Sky-High Huts.” The New York Times, April 17, 1991, sec. New York.
Kelly, José Antonio. State Healthcare and Yanomami Transformations: A Symmetrical Ethnography. Phoenix, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 2011.
Kopenawa, Davi. “Bolsonaro Sent a Flood of Miners into Our Land.” SUMAÚMA (blog), September 13, 2022.
———. “'For Me, the Term Climate Change Means the Revenge of the Earth’.” SUMAÚMA (blog), November 22, 2022.
Kopenawa, Davi, and Bruce Albert. The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman. Translated by Nicholas Elliott and Allison Dundy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2013.
Machado, Ana Maria, Talita Bedinelli, and Eliane Brum. “‘We Are Not Even Able to Count the Bodies.’” SUMAÚMA (blog), January 20, 2023.
Pedrosa, Adriano, and David Ribeiro. Joseca Yanomami: Our Forest-Land. São Paulo, Brazil: Museu de arte de São Paulo, 2023.
Rabben, Linda. Brazil’s Indians and the Onslaught of Civilization: The Yanomami and the Kayapo. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 2003.
Sponsel, Leslie E. Yanomami in the Amazon: Toward a More Ethical Anthropology beyond Othering. Seattle, Washington: Kindle Direct Publishing, 2022.
Van der Pol, Bik. “Projections of the Forest-Land: The Yanomami Image-Drawing.” In The School of Missing Studies, edited by Bik Van der Pol. Sandberg Series. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sternberg Press, 2017.
Zeljko, Jokic. The Living Ancestors: Shamanism, Cosmos and Culture Change Among the Yanomami of the Upper Orinoco. New York, New York & Oxford, United Kingdom: Berghahn Books, 2015.
Andujar, Claudia. No lugar do outro. São Paulo: Dantes Editora, 2015.
Andujar, Claudia, and Carolin Köchling. Tomorrow Must Not Be like Yesterday. Edited by Susanne Gaensheimer and Peter Gorschlüter. Bielefeld, Germany: Kerber Verlag, 2017.
Basciano, Oliver. “Claudia Andujar’s 50-Year Promise to Brazil’s Yanomami.” Financial Times, June 12, 2021. https://www.ft.com/content/6da19561-62d7-413a-864f-7dca1360f2e5.
Churchman, FT. “Why Claudia Andujar’s Photographs Are More Than ‘Just’ Art,” August 26, 2020. https://artreview.com/claudia-andujar-photographs-more-than-art/.
Golden, Tim. “Talk About Culture Shock: Ant People in Sky-High Huts.” The New York Times, April 17, 1991, sec. New York. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/17/nyregion/talk-about-culture-shock-ant-people-in-sky-high-huts.html.
Langlois, Jill. “A Brazilian Defender of Indigenous People.” The New York Times. January 22, 2023, New York edition, sec. AR.
Nogueira, Thyago. “Claudia Andujar in Conversation with Thyago Nogueira.” Aperture, no. 215 (2014): 116–27.
Pitol, André. “Claudia Andujar: Anthropophagie?, Fényképezés, Yanõmami!” The Brooklyn Rail, February 2, 2021.
Rakes, Rachel. “Claudia Andujar’s ‘The Yanomami Struggle’ - Criticism - e-Flux,” May 11, 2020.
Zerwes, Erika. “Militancy from the Margins in Brazil.” Third Text 36, no. 2 (March 4, 2022): 161–75.
Botanova, Kateryna, and Quinn Latimer. Amazonia: Anthology as Cosmology. Berlin, Germany: Sternberg Press, 2022.
Brown, Michael F. Upriver: The Turbulent Life and Times of an Amazonian People. Illustrated Edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2014.
Brum, Eliane. Banzeiro Òkòtó: The Amazon as the Center of the World. Translated by Diane Grosklaus Whitty. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 2023.
Cabral, Astrid. Gazing Through Water: Rasos d’água. Edited by Jay Miskowiec. Translated by Alexis Levitin. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Aliform Publishing, 2021.
Cunha, Euclides da, and Lúcia Sá. The Amazon: Land without History. Translated by Ronald W. Sousa. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Harris, Mark. Rebellion on the Amazon: The Cabanagem, Race, and Popular Culture in the North of Brazil, 1798–1840. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Krenak, Ailton. Ideas to Postpone the End of the World. Translated by Anthony Doyle. Toronto, Canada: House of Anansi Press, 2020.
Landolt, Gredna, and Alexandre Surrallés, eds. La Serpiente de Agua: La Vida Indígena En La Amazonía. Lima, Peru: Fundación Telefónica, 2003.
Bunn Martine, David. No Reservation: New York Contemporary Native American Art Movement. Edited by Jennifer Tromski. New York, New York: American Indian Artists Inc. (AMERINDA), 2017.
Cherleyboy, Lisa, and Mary Beth Leatherdale, eds. Urban Tribes: Native Americans in the City. Fourth. Toronto, Canada & Berkeley, California: Annick Press, 2022.
Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. ReVisioning American History. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 2014.
———. Not “A Nation of Immigrants.” Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 2021.
Estes, Nick. Our History Is the Future. London, England & Brooklyn, New York: Verso, 2019.
“First Light – Relearning, Recentering, Returning at the Speed of Trust.” Accessed January 26, 2023.
Florence, Melanie. Stolen Words. Teneth. Toronto, Canada: Second Story Press, 2022.
Garcia-Antón, Katya, Harald Gaski, and Gunvor Guttorm, eds. Let the River Flow: An Indigenous Uprising and Its Legacy in Art, Ecology and Politics. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Valiz, 2020.
Gilio-Whitaker, Dina. As Long As Grass Grows. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 2019.
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Harjo, Jay, ed. Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2021.
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#HonorNativeLand, 2017.
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HUTUKARA ASSOCIAÇÃO YANOMAMI
INSTITUTO SOCIOAMBIENTAL
FONDATION CARTIER POUR L’ART CONTEMPORAIN
The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is a private cultural institution created in 1984 by the Maison Cartier. Facilitating unexpected and surprising encounters between artists, scientists, philosophers, musicians, and architects from all over the world and different walks of life, the Fondation Cartier has developed a distinctive program of contemporary art exhibitions, live performances, and conferences over the past 40 years.
From the Paris-based building designed by the architect Jean Nouvel, the Fondation Cartier partners with major cultural institutions to share these artistic experiences globally. In 2023, the Fondation Cartier exhibitions will be presented in Paris, Milan, Shanghai, Sydney, New York, and San Francisco, engaging new audiences to discover the works of contemporary artists and be challenged by their perspectives As part of its longstanding initiative to explore the relationship between humans and nature, the Fondation Cartier has produced artistic projects that approach environmental issues, such as climate change, biodiversity, deforestation, and the multiplicity of Indigenous languages and cultures.
In 2003, the Fondation Cartier presented Yanomami: Spirit of the Forest, a pioneering exhibition which initiated a rich dialogue between Claudia Andujar, Davi Kopenawa—shaman of the Yanomami community of Watorikɨ—and international artists including Raymond Depardon Gary Hill, Tony Oursler, Wolfgang Staehle, and Adriana Varejão.
Over the past 20 years, the Fondation Cartier’s collaboration with the Yanomami people of Watorikɨ has remained steadfast. Since 2003, Yanomami artists have participated in various exhibitions organized by the Fondation Cartier, including, Native Land, Stop Eject (2008), Mathematics: A Beautiful Elsewhere (2011), Show and Tell (2012), Vivid Memories (2014), The Great Animal Orchestra (2016), Trees (2019), Claudia Andujar, The Yanomami Struggle (2020), and Living Worlds (2022). In 2023, works by contemporary Yanomami artists will be presented in New York and Milan for the first time, building the most extensive presentations of Yanomami art in the US and Europe to date. Discover the Fondation Cartier’s program.
INSTITUTO MOREIRA SALLES
Acknowledgments and appreciation
The Yanomami Struggle is organized by Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS), Brazil, in partnership with Hutukara Associação Yanomami (HAY) and Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), and is presented by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and The Shed.
It is curated by Thyago Nogueira, Head of Contemporary Photography at IMS, with Valentina Tong, Assistant Curator, under the guidance of Yanomami shaman and spokesperson Davi Kopenawa.
A project of this scale would not be possible without the dedication of numerous people and organizations, especially the Yanomami, their artists, and Hutukara Associação Yanomami, who have shared their knowledge and invested their time in this endeavor. Claudia Andujar’s generosity in opening her life and archive was central to this show. Other important sources were the Commission for the Demarcation of the Yanomami Park’s archive at Instituto Socioambiental and the book The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman, by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert (trans. Nicolas Elliott and Alison Dundy. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013).
Since the exhibition first opened in Brazil in 2018, it has been continuously expanding to reflect our evolving understanding of the world and the multiple perspectives of the Yanomami people, to whom the show belongs. The exhibition’s tour to New York and The Shed is spearheaded by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, under the leadership of Artistic General Director Hervé Chandès and his team and the contribution of Bruce Albert, anthropologist.
At The Shed, Chief Curator Andria Hickey is the coordinating curator of the exhibition, with Eduardo Andres Alfonso, Assistant Curator, and Deja Belardo, Curatorial Assistant, under the direction of Artistic Director Alex Poots, in collaboration with Senior Program Advisor Hans Ulrich Obrist. Civic programming for the exhibition is organized by Chief Civic Program Officer Tamara McCaw and Sarah Khalid Dhobhany, Public Programs Assistant Producer, with Juana Berrio, Public Programs Consultant.
A previous version of this exhibition was presented at Instituto Moreira Salles (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris), Triennale Milano (Milan), Fundación MAPFRE (Barcelona), the Barbican Centre (London), and Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland).
This expanded version, including contemporary Yanomami artists, will travel in 2023–24 to Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, MUAC (Mexico City), Museo Amparo (Puebla, Mexico), Colección de Arte del Banco de la República (Bogotá, Colombia), and Centro Cultural La Moneda (Santiago, Chile).
The Shed, IMS, and the Fondation Cartier would like to acknowledge many more individuals who have contributed to this project, including:
Research Contributors / IMS
Ângelo Manjabosco (IMS)
Jan Rocha
Fiona Watson (Survival International)
Luis Romero
Logistics and Production / IMS
Patricia Queiroz (Expomus)
Camila Goulart
Conservation / IMS
Millard Schisler
Edna Guaiardoni
Prints and Reproductions / IMS
IMS Photography and Digital Department
Legal Department / IMS
Ji Hyun Kim
Exhibition Design
Agence NC, based on original design by Helena Cavalheiro and Alles Blau
Graphic Design
deValence
AV Production and Design
Fuse Technical Group
Terry Jackson, Account Director
Briana Torres, Systems Integration and Design
Nkosi Mason, Lighting Production Manager
J Wiese, Lighting Production Manager
Theresa Unfried, Project Manager
John Salzmann, Lighting Supervisor
Michael Mustica, Lighting Supervisor
Ricardo Garcia, Lighting Supervisor
Juan Mateo, Projectionist
Hubert Kiszniewski, Audio Supervisor
David Teufel, Audio Programmer
Theresa Unfried, Project Manager
John Salzmann, Lighting Supervisor
Michael Mustica, Lighting Supervisor
Ricardo Garcia, Lighting Supervisor
Ted Brown, Disguise Media Programmer
Map Design
Marcelo Pliger
Map Source
Estevão Senra (ISA)
Acknowledgments
Ana Maria Machado
Jan Fjeld (Galeria Vermelho)
Lídia Castro (ISA)
Matthieu Lena (HAY)
Logistics and Production / The Shed
Elizabeth Berridge
MK Meador
Neon Fab Studios
Editorial / The Shed
Phillip Griffith
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
Alain-Dominique Perrin, President
Hervé Chandès, Artistic General Director
Isabelle Gaudefroy, Artistic Managing Deputy Director
Grazia Quaroni, Collections Director
Naïa Sore, Director of Communications and Development
Veerle Dobbeler, Director of Registration
The Fondation Cartier would like to extend their gratitude to:
Cartier International
Delphine Reffait, Cultural and Artistic Development Director
Tamara Charles Temple, Senior Project Manager, Arts & Culture
Agnese Stango, Coordinator, Arts & Culture
Cartier North America
Mercedes Abramo, President and CEO
Andra Mielnicki, Chief Marketing Officer
Dorothée Charles, Cultural and Artistic Development Director
Christine Goppel, AVP, Corporate Relations & Development
Esther Woo, Senior Project Manager, Arts & Culture
Madisen Lewis, Coordinator, Arts & Culture
and Amy St. John, Bridgette Fallon, Carly Dicker, Carter Berman, Dorothée Romeo Aubert, David Spector, Ekta Jaisinghani, Elizabeth Chen, Erica Lovett,Eugenia Machado, Fleur Damon, Francois Spielmann, Hallie Scullia, Jade Connan, Jeremy Bhobot, Jolene Kuo, Katie Zoni, Lauren Gold, Laura Pena, Leo Faber, Madisen Lewis, Maria Holder, Maureen Sullivan, Maya Garcia, Michael Georgen, Nagham Zaghmout, Nathan Kovach, Noelle Dubina, Paige Sahn, Rachel Griffin, Shannon Burton, Vanessa Champigny.