We had an amazing turn out to the opening night of Pachamama Exhibition on Thursday, 26 June. Art lovers from all over Sydney came to view images of indigenous peoples of Latin America, by five photographers including me. Each photographer’s set of images illustrated a theme relating to the people’s relationship with Pachamama: Tradition by Alicia Fox Displacement by Rodrigo Llauro & Natalia Cartney Reconnection by Guillermo Rossi Adaptation by Armando Vega Relationship by Toril Pursell All photos were for sale, with a percentage going to NGOs assisting the people in the photographs. Images (framed and unframed) are still available for purchase, so feel free to contact me if you are interested. Below is a short excerpt from a call out by Survival International, an NGO working to protect isolated tribes in regions including the Amazon. It explains why rapid action to help vulnerable tribes people is important. “An alarming number of uncontacted Indians have been sighted fleeing Peru and entering Brazil. Brazil’s Indian Affairs Department has warned that they face imminent “death” as they enter into the territory of other uncontacted tribes and settled communities. Rampant illegal logging in Peru is believed to be at the heart of this impending disaster. There are only about 100 uncontacted tribes left in […] Read More
Travel is like an intensified version of normal life. We take ourselves out of our comfort zone to situations where the ups are higher and the downs take us deeper than we have ever been. This is why we often return from travelling feeling like a new person: so much more experienced, wiser and even enlightened. After a year or so travelling through South America, I’d been confronted by many lows (and many more highs, thankfully). One thing that irritated me was how long things took. I’m pretty chilled out and enjoy taking my time, but on Latin American time things can be excruciatingly slow. The border crossing from Colombia to Panama is one example of this. The whole process of travelling by boat from port towns to port towns took days. I understand that authorities in this Darien Gap region are wise to watch their ports for drug smugglers, but anyone who has spoken to locals knows that the authorities are aware of the traffickers and allow certain offenders to slip through the cracks. On arriving to Panama, at the tiny village of Puerto Obaldia, the immigration officer sitting inside his sweltering hot cement block informed us […] Read More
