When I walked in to the Museum of Anthropology I was instantly reminded of my time spent there as a child during weekend outings with my parents and multiple school field trips. I was always fascinated by the museum and all the captivating objects in it, as it allowed me to see the realities of what I was learning in school and get a deeper understanding of the Aboriginal peoples history and struggles. There was a lot regarding the history and trauma of the Aboriginal people that I was ignorant to, but I very much remember how visiting the museum when I was younger allowed me to learn so much that I was not told in school. This time when I visited, the very same thing happened. Prior to my visit, I was completely ignorant and did not know much at all, (if anything), about the people and region of Amazonia. However, the objects and the many text panels and images put together to create this exhibit introduced me to a whole new world that I was unaware of.

As I walked into the exhibit, I was immediately captivated by the beautiful and unique displays and artefacts, and felt at ease while listening to the chants playing throughout. One object that stood out to me in particular was a a very powerful image from a book. It depicts a Kayapo leader touching the face of a representative from an electric company with the blade of her machete (image uploaded below). The Kayapo are a group from Brazil that were brutally attacked, slaughtered, enslaved and removed from their land by colonization. In 1989, Kayapo communities came together to fight for their political rights and rights for their traditional land against the construction of the Belo Monte dam. I found this object interesting for many reasons; first it profoundly represents the divide between the Indigenous people of Brazil (and Amazonia as a whole) and the colonists. Much of the exhibit was focused around the conservation and protecting the forests and nature of Amazonia, and the different ways that the Indigenous people value nature compared to the colonizers. I found that this object embodied exactly this–it shows a man that works for an electric company in Western clothing in contrast to the Kayapo woman wearing her native clothing and jewelry. This is just one example of how the European colonists influence on modern populations of South America, and Western culture continues to completely ignore the wishes and beliefs of the Indigenous people regarding their own land. Not only did they force them away from their traditional land a hundred years prior, but now they are constructing a dam in the middle of their new land. This object also reminded me of Canada’s Indigenous people, and how they are also still continually being ignored and mistreated.

This exhibit highlights the Indigenous beliefs that humans are a part of nature, and are not superior to it; therefore conveying the message of preserving nature instead of exploiting it for human desires and monetary gain. It also emphasized the vast knowledge that the Indigenous people have about their land and nature and how connected they are to it. Through our recent lectures and discussions in Geography class, I was able to attain a deeper understanding of this, and recognize the stark contrast between the colonists and Indigenous peoples in regard to ownership rights of land; the colonists unjustly thought that the Indigenous people were not using their land to its full potential, therefore giving them the entitled belief that they should own it as they would use it in a more efficient manner. I believe that the Amazonia exhibit did a beautiful and powerful job of conveying this message across, and allowed us to see and acknowledge the suffering and wrongdoings by the European colonists, and in modern day by Western cultures and beliefs to the Indigenous peoples of Amazonia. Although this exhibit focused on the Indigenous peoples of Amazonia and the Amazon region itself, it allows us all to think about other Indigenous groups around the world, and how their land, beliefs, and rights are continuously being stolen from them in an ever Westernizing and modernizing world. Many of us often forget that Indigenous peoples have been living and thriving off these lands for hundreds of years before Europeans came to colonize them, and they have so much knowledge and wisdom about the environment around them. The Amazon has some of the richest biodiversity in the entire world, and seeing it being exploited for its abundant resources to the point of depletion is truly devastating–not only for the wildlife in that region, but for the Indigenous peoples that have lived in this area for centuries. We all need to realize how our actions and consumer habits contribute to this exploitation, and our own personal responsibility to try to prevent this from happening, not only in the Amazon region but in our own country, Canada, and the rest of the world as well.