Gaia’s Guardian

Impressions of Sônia BONE Guajajara

Gaia is the ancient Goddess of the Earth, Mother of all the universe.

Indigenous, Brazilian environmental activist and politician, Sônia Bone Guajajara has been in the forefront of her country’s environmental movement against deforestation and land grabbing.

Before the arrival of the Portuguese, French and Dutch colonizers of Brazil, the Indigenous people living in the country followed their own spiritual beliefs with their own stories about the creation of life and resultant codes of conduct — all connected to living in harmony with nature.

Colonial practices destroyed much of the Brazilian forest. Mining practices and cattle raising have significantly harmed the land and disrupted the ecosystems.

This is due largely to colonial conceptions of the natural world as a disposable commodity with no inherent value. This conception also reflects colonial attitudes towards Indigenous people, African people (35% of all Africans captured during the Atlantic slave trade were sent to Brazil) and towards women in general.

Today more than 450 thousand Indigenous People in Brazil struggle to maintain their culture in the midst of civilization and overwhelming destruction of the natural world.

With their unrivalled knowledge of their plants and animals, Indigenous people play a crucial role in conserving biodiversity.

Sônia Bone Guajajara

An Indigenous, Brazilian environmental activist and politician, Sônia Bone Guajajara is one of the most prominent indigenous leaders of Brazil. For years she has been in the forefront of her country’s environmental movement. Her work on a national level regarding deforestation and land grabbing has brought her international attention.

Born, March 6, 1974, Maranhão; Sônia Bone Guajajara became a Socialism and Liberty Party candidate for vice-presidency of Brazil in 2018; and was named to the Brazilian Ordem do Mérito Cultural in 2015. She is also the leader of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, which represents around 300 indigenous ethnic groups.

When Sônia Guajajara spoke at a global climate conference in New York in November 2019, she asked her audience: “What image is shocking the world today?”

The Amazon: on fire.

Sônia reminded her listeners that this didn’t just happen, the Amazon is being deliberately set on fire. And this fire — authorized and legalized by the political and economic forces of Brazil —is killing Indigenous people and destroying their homelands.

Like Medusa — assaulted, raped, prohibited from practicing her spiritual path, cursed and banished, hunted and finally murdered — Indigenous People are not being asked for their consent, they are not being given the space to say yes or no.

Indigenous people are not authorizing a predatory relationship with Mother Earth.

This is being forced upon them against their will.

Like Medusa, they are not being consulted. Their lands have been seized, their people murdered.

With the Amazon on fire — an institutionalized genocide of indigenous peoples is taking place in Brazil.

Last year Zezico Rodrigues Guajajara, a prominent indigenous leader from Araribóia indigenous territory in Brazil's Amazonian state of Maranhão, was assassinated. He was the fifth indigenous leader to be killed in five months.

Medusa is hated and feared and portrayed as a monster, just as Indigenous People are frequently portrayed as an enemy to a nation’s progress and development.

Sonia Guajajara said:

“If any of you wants to date me, who do you have to ask? Me.

If I say no it’s no. If I say that no means no and you insist. What is that?

It is assault, it is abuse, it is rape.”

“This is exactly what is happening today with — with women and with Mother Earth.

She is being raped.

Raped by mining, by the railroads and raped by the poison of pesticides in our foods and dams in the water.”

The Rio Doce is a river in southeast Brazil. In 2015 the collapse of a dam released highly contaminated water from mining into the river, causing an ecological disaster, and threatening life all along the river and into the Atlantic sea near the mouth of the river. About 60 million cubic meters of iron waste flowed into the rio Doce. Toxic brown mudflows reached the Atlantic Ocean 17 days later.

What do you think of a world and society whose core values include a model of destruction that is killing Indigenous peoples, destroying the environment and continually raping Mother Earth?

For Sônia Guajajara, fighting for the climate today is fighting for Indigenous peoples to be heard. It is fighting for the right to consultation. It is fighting for existence on the planet.

I think it’s time we listen. And that’s why I painted my impressions of her in Eyeing Medusa.

Like Medusa, when Indigenous people are denied their territorial rights, they are also losing the right to live.

I dare you to look in the mirror and face your Medusa. Consider how it hits you knowing that every rape, every violation is not just a violation of rights but a denial of sacred lives.

When a people and cultures are destroyed, when their land is stolen, they have no future.

What gives us the right to do this? Just so someone like Perseus can have a trophy and Athena can have Medusa’s head on a shield?

This fundamental sense of entitlement which is built into the very fabric of western philosophy is really toxic.

Is bottled water, gold or oil really more precious or important than life?

Moving forward, let us ask ourselves: What part do we want to play in these stories and in the future of the planet?

Are we here, like Poseidon to rob Medusa/Gaia of her power, impose our will upon her and demand she act against her core values?

Are we here like Perseus, to cut her down like trophy-hunting poachers?

Are we here like Athena — proclaiming our own glory while we appropriate and defame the very people we have robbed?

As uncomfortable or difficult as it may be, it is time to acknowledge the devastating impact of colonialism and start listening to the ancient wisdom of the caretakers of this earth.

GAIA

As Mother Earth, Gaia is considered to be a later version of the pre-Indo-European Great mother.

In Greek mythology, Gaia is known as the ancestral mother of all life.

It is said the god Apollo killed Gaia’s child, Python, and thereby usurped her chthonic power.

We must stop trying to steal her power.

The triple goddesses Demeter, Persephone and Hecate may also be considered aspects of Gaia.

The Venus of Willendorf was likely an ancient mother or earth goddess.

Connections & Contrasts with other Women in Art

References