As over 90 countries and their top leaders meet in Glasgow to discuss possible solutions to stop climate change, Fearless, a South Asia based public art project, will be in Glasgow from the 4th to the 10th of November, collaborating with Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation (APIB and other indigenous leaders).
As a part of their campaign, ‘At the Root’, Fearless plans to use public art to make space for Indigenous peoples, organizations, and allies to vision futures that are a counter-force to the ongoing violation of Indigenous rights.
Through this mural, they will add momentum to their struggles to defend their bodies, lands, identities and emphasize the need for solidarity with each other to bring these futures to life.
‘At the Root’ seeks to reorient the conversation on the environment and climate change to focus not on the symptoms but on the sources or roots of the issues and intersections between how we treat our land, our bodies, and our traditions.
In 2012, Bangalore-based visual artist Shilo Shiv Suleman started Fearless in response to the powerful protests that shook the country in response to the “Nirbhaya” case in Delhi, India. Since then, Fearless has worked in over 12 countries, co-creating over 40 murals, reclaiming spaces, carving out public depictions of women and their significance in societies around the world – from the small indigenous village of Olivencia colonized by the Portuguese in Brazil to the first known public testament to queer masculinities in Beirut, Lebanon, to the sprawling community of Lyari rift with gang violence in Karachi, Pakistan.
‘Fearless’ believes in showing up in spaces of fear, isolation, and trauma and supporting communities as they reclaim these public spaces with the images and affirmations they choose.
Over time, working with different communities, they have developed a six-step methodology that places affirmations at the centre of social change, using beauty as resistance and fearlessness as a tool for reclaiming public space.
The methodology draws from personal history, traditional storytelling techniques and universal myths and archetypes. Working through an immersive process of self-representation and collective imagination opens a pathway for ‘Fearless’ to reclaim public space and affirm the safe and sacred futures.
APIB makes this clear in its manifesto. “Our struggle is not only to preserve the life of our peoples but of all humanity, today seriously threatened by the policy of extermination and devastation of Mother Nature promoted by economic elites – who inherited the greed of colonial, mercantilist and feudal expansionist power.” – APIB, Struggle for Life Manifesto
While the countries are still recovering from a pandemic, COP26 seeks to take this moment to tackle climate change to “build back better and greener.”
However, this initiative asks the most poignant question. Is ‘building-back-better’ possible without turning to Indigenous nations who have lived in reciprocity with their homelands and waters (sacred. beloved.) from- time immemorial?
It derives from the fact that Indigenous people are displaced, their livelihoods and homes destroyed by states and prominent capitalists. And yet- they continue to defend their territories with the resilience to be Indigenous and self-determining without limitation.
Fearless believes that given the current climate crisis and focus on Indigenous-led solutions, COP 26 is an unprecedented opportunity to amplify and honour Indigenous peoples’ roles in climate justice.
While world leaders gather inside concrete (enclosed, exclusive) buildings to make decisions that will affect us all based on their agendas.
They will be collaborating with Amplify the messages of Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation (APIB) and other Indigenous leaders to co-create a mural in the streets outside of COP 26
Through this public art intervention, they will:
- Amplify the messages of Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation (APIB) and other Indigenous land defenders
- Paint their self-representations for the world to see
- Affirm their visions for futures that are sustained, sacred, and just for all.
They will be painting from the 5th to the 10th of November at 74 Brunswick Street, close to the Glasgow City Centre.
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