Magnificent monuments, pyramids, architecture, crafted forests, agricultural and medicinal technologies, possibly 100 million people scattered across some 40 million square kilometers of land are all placed in the shadow of this one man. This is too unrealistic to be scientific.

Indigenous peoples have endured rampant assault, starvation and murder for hundreds of years, the fraction which survived are still enduring this paradigm, and the last 4 years are not single-handedly responsible for the injustices these peoples have been faced with, only for allowing business to go on as usual.

It is difficult to bring a critical eye to such a respected figure in the world of artistic, political and environmental activism. People are complex and therefore so are their artistic productions. I believe that Sebastião Salgado's work exists somewhere between the beneficial and the harmful.

Signatures as proof of personhood is an existential threat, both philosophically and materially, to those furthest away from the status of power, wealth and whiteness.

The egregore of capital knows it needs the native body to dominate the land of which indigenous peoples are an intricate expression. However, the egregore knows its survival is at risk too — it fears the wooden stake of the peasant class.

Violence against Indigenous people is not a natural disaster, and they need not be rescued from it. To be rescued from violence doesn’t end violence, it only keeps certain people temporarily safe.

“Bloodthirsty savagery”, which is often attributed to the Mayan people, far better describes U.S. foreign policy than any pre-Columbian civilization in the Americas. We ought to remember that the Mayan people still exist today, and they were and still are far from the backwards and underdeveloped stereotype propagated in mainstream media.

Today, as the cautionary tale that we have become, it’s not too late to start putting this planet back in our sights, even if it means looking at something uncomfortable and un-rescuable.

As the ravages of Empire play out, cultural recovery may become our goal again in the future — and we may find ourselves by choice or necessity living in small localized kinship groups once again, looking to our own ancestral traditions for a template to survival.

“Stop being Indigenous, start being a worker.”

Are we giving real support to indigenous peoples, offering their proper place in society and fighting against their still present eradication process? Or are we only concerned with gaining more knowledge for our spiritual evolution, thinking that these spirits are also here for us to use because they are similar to the Europeans ones we know, or even that these spirits could feel honored if we force them into our Witchcraft boxes with European, foreign and white roots?

We invite you to engage with your community about how the ideas presented here can transform your community and your practice. A land acknowledgment is just the first step of imagining and co-creating a better world where the lands, waters, animals, and human beings can thrive.

April was Indigenous Month in Brazil. This article reports on the Leadership of Indigenous Women conference in Salvador, and explores the personal and communal journey of indigenous women through generations.

From the microcosm of personal grief, to Western civilization's atrocities throughout the ages.