Dear readers,

Recently we have visited the Amazonia exhibition at the Museum of Anthropology here in UBC. The exhibition features artworks, handicrafts, tools and related government statistics. The exhibition explores the indigenous cultures as well as the environmental degradation around the Amazon region.

One of the major themes of the exhibition is the indigenous culture in the Amazon. As native tribes are forced to move away or abandon their homeland due to the extraction of natural resources as well as land development projects, native culture is being severely threatened. Regarding on this issue, Beril explores the topic of indigenous cultural conservation and acknowledges respect between people with different cultural backgrounds as the foundation of cultural conservation. She uses the “Kitxoko Clay Dolls” artifact to suggest the idea of crafting as a way to “affirm their (native’s) identity and resilience”. Similar to Beril’s idea, Codi suggests that the Kamëntsà Headdress is a  symbol of the “resilience and unwavering commitment to their cultural values.” She discusses the destructive force of modernity in terms of the dying indigenous cultures in which the modern political power structure is used as the major driving force of destruction. There is no doubt that governments and corporations have been exploiting the natural resources for the sake of economic interest, however the Amazonia natives have shown us a whole new approach to the human-nature relationship.

Lilly draws attention to the way natives respect the environment in which the environment should be able to “live and thrive” and to realize the environment as a component in our lives that should be respected rather than a commodity for us to buy and sell. While Julia ties in with Lilly’s idea, suggesting the maintaining of “a balanced co-existence with nature” as the ideal human-nature relationship that we all should learn from. Perhaps in this hyper-materialistic era, the first step in saving the environment, is rebuild our relationship with the nature, educate the society with the concept of “Co-existence” while giving up on unrealistic production and economic goals. Ayse takes a very unique approach in connecting our standard of beauty to our health. She acknowledges that one way of improving one’s mental well-being is through the gaining of self-confidence through improving ones appearance while suggesting that perhaps health and beauty should considered the same thing since the unrealistic modern beauty standard often disregard one’s physical and mental well-being.

Another major theme of the exhibition is the issue of environment degradation and social justice among the natives. As shown in the exhibition, we can see that in order to generating more energy and producing more raw material, dams were built and trees were cut down. Jordan’s blog post features the destructive act from the Brazilian government while she sheds light onto environmental issues such as the Dakota Access Pipeline etc. Such examples have allowed us as readers to reflect upon our consumption pattern and to realize the mutual respect to the environment is the key to sustainability.

The Amazonia Exhibition has demonstrated different aspects of the natives’ life and there is definitely a lot that we can  learn from. The situation of Amazon is not simply a social problem in which livelihood and culture are on the edge of being destroyed, it is a warning sign for the rest of the world to reflect on our way of life especially the way we handle different culture and the way we treat the environment. Perhaps the question is not about finding a solution to  the problems in the Amazon, but rather what can we learn from the natives in creating a sustainable future.

To end my blog post I would like to thank everyone for your unique and insightful blog post, reading the collective effort of you all is definitely a valuable learning opportunity for me.