Fifteen paintings produced by Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado were reincorporated this Monday (17) to the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) heritage. Valued at nearly R$1 million, the works had been under the custody of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) since the foundation’s board decided to return to the artist the works that Salgado himself had donated about two years earlier. The return of the paintings was announced in May 2020, a few days after the renowned photographer criticized the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, in an interview with the international press. In the interview, Salgado told the US network CNN that the federal government did nothing to protect the indigenous peoples who live in the Brazilian Amazon and that such an omission represented a risk of genocide for isolated peoples. In a note released at the time, Funai reported that the decision to make the works available to the photographer had not been motivated by “conflict or antagonism of ideas”, but rather by the “impossibility of remaining with the collection due to obstacles in asset management, relating to the safekeeping and proper treatment of the pieces”. At the time, the foundation reported that, upon returning the paintings then under its control, it suggested that Salgado auction them and use the money obtained from the sale to benefit the indigenous peoples. “There was no conflict or antagonism of ideas, but rather an intention to leave the sphere of mere discourse to actually add efforts and expand the measures that have already been taken by the Brazilian government for the benefit of indigenous peoples”. Today, in a well-attended ceremony, attended by representatives of the indigenous movement and the Executive, Judiciary and Legislative powers, Salgado again criticized the Bolsonaro administration and the former Funai leaders. “The previous government denied these photographs and, at a given moment, wanted to sell them. Fortunately, the Public Ministry adopted them temporarily and we were able to make a lending [termo de empréstimo] for the time we waited for Funai to become Funai again”, said the photographer who, moved, cried at different moments of the event. Object of controversy, the 15 images of the Korubo people, recorded by one of the best known photodocumentarists in the world, were obtained in 2017, in the Javari Valley, in Amazonas, as part of a project that had the support of Funai itself. The images reveal recently-contacted indigenous people in everyday situations and posing in a studio that Salgado improvised in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. According to the president of Funai, Joenia Wapichana, the rescue of the works donated by Sebastião Salgado is part of the foundation’s reconstruction efforts. “We still have a lot to rescue, a lot to take out of the drawer, a lot to reverse. We have a very big challenge and we are starting little by little”, said Joenia. “Funai receives with all honor these works that bring [registram] our history, our memory. If the past management despised them, we received them with great care, ”he added. “While others despised and discarded it, we are opening the doors and bringing indigenous peoples and allies of indigenous causes back to Funai and resuming the institutional duties of the foundation”, emphasized Joenia.
Agência Brasil
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