Invoke the Power of the Vegetables with LAND!
Donation protected
Protect the future of Indigenous people: Invoke the Power of the Vegetables with LAND!
Your pledge to this campaign will ensure that members of the Huni Kuin indigenous community can live on their land, have access to food and health, and continue guarding our Amazon rainforest, our lungs. This is an exceptional opportunity for the indigenous community to take back, own their land. It is extremely important for the Huni Kuin people to own the land they toil and care for, year after year.
Kawá Huni Kuin and his village (approximately 20 families) together with a team of specialists, which includes an architect, a renewable energy engineer, and an anthropologist, will co-design the land that will host a school dedicated to nutrition and sustainable agriculture at its centre.
We are grateful to members of our community who have been ongoing supporters of the Huni Kuin and indigenous people of Brazil.
Your generosity, like love, is contagious. Every donation counts.
May our community grow!
Invoke the Power of the Vegetables with LAND is the second phase of Invoke the Power of the Vegetables (link below) campaign to build a school dedicated to improve the nutrition of the growing indigenous population along the river Jordão in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest created by Kawá Huni Kuin in 2018 during his first journey to Europe, and out of the rainforest.
Responding to the current situation for indigenous people, Invoke the Power of the Vegetables with LAND, invites pledges towards the purchase of a parcel of 65 hectares of rainforest land where Kawá and his community will be able to build their school and live near Jordão. Kawá, his family and approximately 20 families from his village will be able to build their homes and the school, and cultivate the land.
The world has become a different place since 2018. This school was due to be built last year, but the project was postponed due to the pandemic. Today COVID-19 is an additional threat to indigenous communities in Brazil who are continuously at risk of losing their homes in the rainforest, have limited access to food, and are at risk of malnutrition. The land demarcation movement started in the 1970s was a vital step towards the survival and emancipation of indigenous communities in Acre; however, now more than ever, it is clear that indigenous people will be empowered as Brazilian citizens by owning land outside of the demarcated territories.
The Project: Invoke the Power of the Vegetables with LAND
- To raise £60,000 for an indigenous community to purchase 65 hectares of land where Kawá Huni Kuin and his community will build a school (see objectives of the first part of the project). Here’s the link to the first part of this campaign initiated in 2018 that raised £10,000 pounds to build the school (www.gf.me/u/v7r2x8).
- To ensure this indigenous community will be the legal owners of the land they preserve and farm near the municipality of Jordão in the state of Acre.
Phase 1: Invoke the Power of the Vegetables
- To build a school, a multipurpose space where Kawá Huni Kuin and his community can host guest speakers, members of other villages and outside visitors to discuss the nutritional needs of the Huni Kuin indigenous community (i.e. how to adapt to the growing challenges to our hunters by eating and growing a variety of vegetables)
- To exchange seeds amongst ourselves and with members of other villages
- To exchange information with other villages about our agricultural practices (i.e. planting without chemical and costly pesticides)
- To involve all members of the family, especially women and children, in a plan to produce and welcome new vegetables in order to diversify their vegetables crops, and discourage the foods that are replacing their native diet through education about nutrition
- To teach our community about nutrition
- To be an example for other communities
- To “invoke the power of the vegetables” through song and dance.
Contributing towards some solutions
This campaign aims to address the threat and fear of displacement and nutrition for the indigenous Huni Kuin in Jordão. Similar to indigenous people in different parts of the world, the indigenous people of Brazil are at regular risk of displacement, and often live in fear due to the various industries (logging, monoculture farming and cattle rearing) that are destroying the rainforest, their home. Moreover, Brazilian former President Bolsonaro’s politics have slowly and steadily contributed to the genocide of Brazil’s indigenous communities.
By joining the greater community who support the rainforest and its people you will enable these communities to become landowners and will be working towards creating a more equal society.
The school dedicated to nutrition will be one of the focal points of this land, thus ensuring an open and ongoing dialogue about nutrition and sustainable and diverse agriculture in the indigenous territories.
Additionally, the youth of at least 20 families will be able to continue secondary school education which is only available in the municipality of Jordão if they have a residence near Jordão.
The Team
Kawá Huni Kuin, Musician and apprentice Healer
Hello, I am Kawá Huni Kuin. I am a musician, an apprentice healer, a father and an English student. I have been studying the English language since my first trip to England in 2018 when I studied at a language school in Manchester. Thank you for being patient with my English speaking skills. Part of my personal journey is to be able to communicate directly to the English speaking world about the Huni Kuin indigenous life, culture and traditions, and teach English and many other things I have learned in Europe to my community. Indigenous and white (non-indigenous) cultures have a lot to learn from each other, and I hope I can help in making these connections.
I live in the Amazonian rainforest, along the river Jordão in the state of Acre, Brazil. I belong to the Huni Kuin ethnic group. The name of my village is Nova Fortaleza, located approximately eight hours by canoe to the municipality of Jordão, a place with a population of 7,000 people. We call this the “city”.
We are approximately 80 people in my village. The elders are around 50 years old and the rest of us are under thirty, and there are three times more women than there are men. Huni Kuin villages are generally composed of a village chief, a professor, an agro-forestry and health agent, a midwife, and a food provider (a cook) for the school. The men in the family hunt and all members of the family go fishing regularly. Our diet is composed of banana, manioc, corn, various small river fish, and forest meat like wild chicken, squirrel, pig, and deer.
Verónica Castro PhD, Visual anthropologist
Veronica met Kawá during her anthropological fieldwork with the Huni Kuin ethnic group in the indigenous territories along the river Jordão in the state of Acre, Brazil. She and Kawá have been learning together in the field and collaborating on different co-creative projects including filmmaking, writing, crowdfunding, storytelling performance in various countries in Europe.
Gustavo Utrabo, Architect
Gustavo’s approach to architecture takes into consideration the economic and political context, and the relevant social and environmental agendas. His expertise, guided by sustainability and inclusivity, and ethos, based on collaboration and mutual learning, garnered him various awards, including the RIBA International Prize (2018), for his project, Xingu Canopies, in the Xingu indigenous territories.
His deep respect to the social and political contexts in his work, ensure that his collaboration with the Huni Kuin people of Acre will be a unique co-creative and co-making experience where the question of how architecture acts in contemporary indigenous society, physically and subjectively, can be explored.
Main Prizes
Finalist at the Wheelwright Prize Harvard (2019)
Finalist of Tomie Ohtake AkzoNobel Contemporary Architecture Prize - Xingu Canopies (2019)
The Best Architecture of the 21st Century listed by The Guardian (2019)
Donate
Donate to Invoke the Power of the Vegetables with LAND and join the movement to resist against the threat of their displacement and to improve nutrition and the livelihoods of the Huni Kuin community.
Let this call to the spirits of the vegetables expand throughout the globe!
Haux! Haux! Viva! Viva!
Contact
Email: [email redacted]
Your pledge to this campaign will ensure that members of the Huni Kuin indigenous community can live on their land, have access to food and health, and continue guarding our Amazon rainforest, our lungs. This is an exceptional opportunity for the indigenous community to take back, own their land. It is extremely important for the Huni Kuin people to own the land they toil and care for, year after year.
Kawá Huni Kuin and his village (approximately 20 families) together with a team of specialists, which includes an architect, a renewable energy engineer, and an anthropologist, will co-design the land that will host a school dedicated to nutrition and sustainable agriculture at its centre.
We are grateful to members of our community who have been ongoing supporters of the Huni Kuin and indigenous people of Brazil.
Your generosity, like love, is contagious. Every donation counts.
May our community grow!
Invoke the Power of the Vegetables with LAND is the second phase of Invoke the Power of the Vegetables (link below) campaign to build a school dedicated to improve the nutrition of the growing indigenous population along the river Jordão in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest created by Kawá Huni Kuin in 2018 during his first journey to Europe, and out of the rainforest.
Responding to the current situation for indigenous people, Invoke the Power of the Vegetables with LAND, invites pledges towards the purchase of a parcel of 65 hectares of rainforest land where Kawá and his community will be able to build their school and live near Jordão. Kawá, his family and approximately 20 families from his village will be able to build their homes and the school, and cultivate the land.
The world has become a different place since 2018. This school was due to be built last year, but the project was postponed due to the pandemic. Today COVID-19 is an additional threat to indigenous communities in Brazil who are continuously at risk of losing their homes in the rainforest, have limited access to food, and are at risk of malnutrition. The land demarcation movement started in the 1970s was a vital step towards the survival and emancipation of indigenous communities in Acre; however, now more than ever, it is clear that indigenous people will be empowered as Brazilian citizens by owning land outside of the demarcated territories.
The Project: Invoke the Power of the Vegetables with LAND
- To raise £60,000 for an indigenous community to purchase 65 hectares of land where Kawá Huni Kuin and his community will build a school (see objectives of the first part of the project). Here’s the link to the first part of this campaign initiated in 2018 that raised £10,000 pounds to build the school (www.gf.me/u/v7r2x8).
- To ensure this indigenous community will be the legal owners of the land they preserve and farm near the municipality of Jordão in the state of Acre.
Phase 1: Invoke the Power of the Vegetables
- To build a school, a multipurpose space where Kawá Huni Kuin and his community can host guest speakers, members of other villages and outside visitors to discuss the nutritional needs of the Huni Kuin indigenous community (i.e. how to adapt to the growing challenges to our hunters by eating and growing a variety of vegetables)
- To exchange seeds amongst ourselves and with members of other villages
- To exchange information with other villages about our agricultural practices (i.e. planting without chemical and costly pesticides)
- To involve all members of the family, especially women and children, in a plan to produce and welcome new vegetables in order to diversify their vegetables crops, and discourage the foods that are replacing their native diet through education about nutrition
- To teach our community about nutrition
- To be an example for other communities
- To “invoke the power of the vegetables” through song and dance.
Contributing towards some solutions
This campaign aims to address the threat and fear of displacement and nutrition for the indigenous Huni Kuin in Jordão. Similar to indigenous people in different parts of the world, the indigenous people of Brazil are at regular risk of displacement, and often live in fear due to the various industries (logging, monoculture farming and cattle rearing) that are destroying the rainforest, their home. Moreover, Brazilian former President Bolsonaro’s politics have slowly and steadily contributed to the genocide of Brazil’s indigenous communities.
By joining the greater community who support the rainforest and its people you will enable these communities to become landowners and will be working towards creating a more equal society.
The school dedicated to nutrition will be one of the focal points of this land, thus ensuring an open and ongoing dialogue about nutrition and sustainable and diverse agriculture in the indigenous territories.
Additionally, the youth of at least 20 families will be able to continue secondary school education which is only available in the municipality of Jordão if they have a residence near Jordão.
The Team
Kawá Huni Kuin, Musician and apprentice Healer
Hello, I am Kawá Huni Kuin. I am a musician, an apprentice healer, a father and an English student. I have been studying the English language since my first trip to England in 2018 when I studied at a language school in Manchester. Thank you for being patient with my English speaking skills. Part of my personal journey is to be able to communicate directly to the English speaking world about the Huni Kuin indigenous life, culture and traditions, and teach English and many other things I have learned in Europe to my community. Indigenous and white (non-indigenous) cultures have a lot to learn from each other, and I hope I can help in making these connections.
I live in the Amazonian rainforest, along the river Jordão in the state of Acre, Brazil. I belong to the Huni Kuin ethnic group. The name of my village is Nova Fortaleza, located approximately eight hours by canoe to the municipality of Jordão, a place with a population of 7,000 people. We call this the “city”.
We are approximately 80 people in my village. The elders are around 50 years old and the rest of us are under thirty, and there are three times more women than there are men. Huni Kuin villages are generally composed of a village chief, a professor, an agro-forestry and health agent, a midwife, and a food provider (a cook) for the school. The men in the family hunt and all members of the family go fishing regularly. Our diet is composed of banana, manioc, corn, various small river fish, and forest meat like wild chicken, squirrel, pig, and deer.
Verónica Castro PhD, Visual anthropologist
Veronica met Kawá during her anthropological fieldwork with the Huni Kuin ethnic group in the indigenous territories along the river Jordão in the state of Acre, Brazil. She and Kawá have been learning together in the field and collaborating on different co-creative projects including filmmaking, writing, crowdfunding, storytelling performance in various countries in Europe.
Gustavo Utrabo, Architect
Gustavo’s approach to architecture takes into consideration the economic and political context, and the relevant social and environmental agendas. His expertise, guided by sustainability and inclusivity, and ethos, based on collaboration and mutual learning, garnered him various awards, including the RIBA International Prize (2018), for his project, Xingu Canopies, in the Xingu indigenous territories.
His deep respect to the social and political contexts in his work, ensure that his collaboration with the Huni Kuin people of Acre will be a unique co-creative and co-making experience where the question of how architecture acts in contemporary indigenous society, physically and subjectively, can be explored.
Main Prizes
Finalist at the Wheelwright Prize Harvard (2019)
Finalist of Tomie Ohtake AkzoNobel Contemporary Architecture Prize - Xingu Canopies (2019)
The Best Architecture of the 21st Century listed by The Guardian (2019)
Donate
Donate to Invoke the Power of the Vegetables with LAND and join the movement to resist against the threat of their displacement and to improve nutrition and the livelihoods of the Huni Kuin community.
Let this call to the spirits of the vegetables expand throughout the globe!
Haux! Haux! Viva! Viva!
Contact
Email: [email redacted]
Organizer and beneficiary
Kawá Huni Kuin
Organizer
England
veronica castro
Beneficiary