The Amazon, Indigenous art & Vandria
The Amazon, Indigenous art and Vandria Borari
The grand nature of the Amazon rainforest, its indigenous peoples with their unique, nature-loving culture and great personalities such as the warrior Vandria Borari are inextricably linked and interwoven. Together they make up the life of the Amazon.
S'BRENT wants to help protect and preserve this life - and thus our earth!



The Amazon, ceramics by V. Borari, Vandria Borari
The Amazon with its magnificent, powerful nature holds most of the world's biodiversity and is home to it’s native people. Protecting and regenerating its rainforest is absolutely crucial to the future of our planet. It is the indigenous people who fight daily against deforestation, more than 80% of which is illegal, and who protect and care for the rainforest through their culture, deeply connected to nature, and their enormous biological knowledge. Images of the Amazon, taken by drones, show the indigenous protected areas as thriving islands. Only by protecting and supporting the indigenous people and their culture can we sustainably protect and regenerate the Amazon rainforest.
But what do we really know about indigenous culture? What is left of this culture after more than 500 years of colonization and oppression?
Let's hear what Vandria Borari has to say about it.
An interview with Vandria Borari

Vandria Borari - source
In June 2019, Vandria Borari visited the Netherlands following an invitation from Tim Boekhout van Solinge.
First, let's talk about your culture. You are part of the indigenous Borari community living in the Brazilian Amazon and you are working hard to bring back your culture. How come your communities’ culture has disappeared in the first place?
We have had a really hard past. During the European colonisation in the Amazon, Portuguese missionaries invaded our territory. They killed indigenous leaders and created new rulers who forced the population to stop their rituals and their normal way of living. From that moment, indigenous people had to work to sustain Portugal and while doing that, they had to become Portuguese speaking Christians. This way, they forgot their own language and couldn’t perform their own religion. The indigenous people became slaves of the Portuguese and when they tried to resist, they were killed or imprisoned. They lost their culture because they were forced. These days, we try to bring it back.
Why do you think it is so important to bring back your culture?
Because people without culture are not people. Our culture unites us and maintains our harmony with our territory. On top of that, we want to preserve the culture for which our ancestors resisted all these horrible types of violence.
What do you think makes your culture different from other cultures?
Our culture is different because we depend on the forest. We are part of the forest. Because we believe we are nature, we believe that, if we destroy nature, we are destroying ourselves. Our culture is all about being in harmony with our lands.
Why did you decide to go to Law School?
I think that by studying Law, I’m more helpful to my people. I believe traditional communities and black people are vulnerable in our society and I chose Law because I wanted to be able to fight for our rights. The only way to keep our traditions and to save all the people, animals and future generations living in the rainforest, is to defend our lands. And I think it will be very helpful to fight with lawyers from our own territory.
Do you see yourself as a spokesperson for your culture and your people?
Yes, I think that, because I’m from the indigenous movement from the state of Para and because I know what is happening to us, I’m able to be a spokesperson for my people while in Europe.Is that also the reason that you wanted to come to the Netherlands?
The reason I came to Europe was to speak out, to bring the voice of the forest. I want people to know that we’re suffering, that we have big companies in our territories that are polluting our rivers and our groundwater, that the agricultural companies use toxins that cause respiration diseases among our children, that we are losing our forest to soybean fields…
What can we do to help the indigenous people in Brazil?
I think more cooperation is important. People should be more informed about how companies from their country are violating human rights and environmental legislation in Brazil. And don’t buy products that come from the Amazon! That destroys lives and people get killed for it, especially leaders and defenders of indigenous people.
We all need to stop and think about the future generation, instead of only thinking about now!
The whole interview: Forestforces
“There is no profit in this world, there is only life!”,
says the indigenous actress and activist Kay Sara.
S'BRENT wants to help protect and preserve this life in the Amazon - and thus our earth!
To protect life on our planet
- Indigenous protected areas must be demarcated and effectively protected,
- indigenous cultures must be able to develop and
- we need dialogue with the indigenous people.
S'BRENT builds its work for climate protection and human rights in the Amazon on 3 pillars.
- Dialogue with people such as Vandria Borari, Tupi Tupinamba and others.
- Supporting projects and actions of the Borari and other peoples of the lower Tapajos - who have joined together in CITA - which serve to revitalize their culture and thus protect the Amazon rainforest.
- Cooperation and networking with other organizations with which we can complement and exchange ideas. (see Network)
Updated at: 11.5.2023
Created at: 14.3.2023