Nature and Us Gallery Transcripts

Moisés Luiz da Silva

Moisés: I am Moisés Luiz da Silva, I am from the Baniwa ethnic group.

Interviewer: What does the forest mean in your life, the river in your life?

Moisés: I think that the river for us is like it is for the population in general. I think that not only for Indigenous peoples, but globally, for the world we are suffering grave consequences.

In the past, we knew that in the months from March to April it was the fish spawning season. So, it was fish everywhere. So, our ancestors already knew that during that period there would be a fish spawning, so they prepared fishing traps, then they would go there and surround that area, then they would catch the fish. Then they would take those fish and offer them to the brothers-in-law, cousins, grandparents, then they would make this exchange.

Today the population no longer uses the river, for what our ancestors, our forefathers used to do.

Luis Laureano da Silva

Interviewer: What is your name?

Luis: Luis Laureano da Silva.

Interviewer: Ethnicity?

Luis: Baniwa.

Interviewer: What do you think about the importance of the Amazon rainforest to you?

Luis: All of this here is actually food for Indigenous peoples.

Marluce Massa Galvão

Marluce: I am called Marluce Massa Galvão. I am of the Desana ethnicity, but I speak Tukano.

Nature for me, for my part, is very important for what we cultivate. So, through nature, we collect patauá (a palm), and some of the animals that we also hunt, mainly the men hunt to eat and to support the family. And we also don’t do large deforestation. It’s a small part for us to plant maniva (cassava).

Adão Sampaio Galvão

Adão: My name is Adão Sampaio Galvão. I am of Desana ethnicity and I speak Tukano.

Interviewer: And what does the forest mean to you, Adão?

Adão: Look, the first thing, for our ethnicity the forest is our life, right? And to add to that, I can tell you our truth, right? Since our very origins, we, Indigenous peoples, were entrusted with the land by our chief. When our God entrusted it, he said to our grandparents: “My people, my grandchildren, I want you to take care of our land and not destroy it.” Until now, we think about what was said, at the moment when our God entrusted us with our land, right?

On 16 July 2023, a pod of 55 long-finned pilot whales was stranded on Tràigh Mhòr beach on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, off the coast of Scotland.

The stranding may have happened in part because one of the female whales in the pod was experiencing complications giving birth.

The rest of the whales stayed with her and ended up being beached by the tide.

Sadly, despite the best efforts of the rescuers, which included local community volunteers, only one whale survived.

As a memorial to the 54 whales that died, visual artist Sam Gare worked with the local community who was grieving their loss. They created sand sculptures of all the whales to symbolically return the animals to the sea.

[Two wooden signs on the sand sculptures read:]

Whale 30
Adult, Female
Mother to Whale 1,26, 31 and 42
Daughter of Whale 32

Whale 19
Juvenile Male
Son of Whale 25

As the tide slowly reclaimed the sand sculptures it became both a memorial and a reminder of our enduring bond with the natural world.