Headed to an Artist Residency in the Amazon Rainforest

I am thrilled and humbled to be invited on a pilot of an Artist-in-Residence program with OnePlanet and the ACEER (Amazon Center for Environmental Education & Research) Foundation in the Peruvian rainforest for 20 days this January. I’ll be departing for this wild adventure on the 3rd and returning to the states on the 24th. This residency combines experts from various backgrounds for an interdisciplinary approach, combining science, art and Indigenous culture. I will be traveling with a group of around 20 people including scientists from various backgrounds of research, and other artists working in a variety of mediums, and each day we’ll be working with members of the Maijuna Indigenous Community.

The mission:

The residency is part of a larger mission to advocate for the Amazon Rainforest and for the Maijuna, Peru’s smallest indigenous community who, for generations, have been the caretakers of the eastern Peruvian rainforest. Members of the Peruvian Government are trying to push through a 130 km highway development project that would cut directly through The Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area, one of the Peruvian Amazon’s newest conservation areas that protects nearly one million acres of rainforest and over a quarter million acres of Maijuna ancestral lands. Not only do these ancestral lands sustain the Maijuna culture and livelihood, but this area of rainforest is one of the most biologically diverse places on Earth and an extremely valuable carbon sink in the battle against global climate change. If this proposed highway development corridor were to be constructed, it would be a disaster not only for the vulnerable Maijuna community and the dense species population of the Amazon rainforest, but it would also be a disaster for the rest of the planet as massive amounts of carbon would be released into the atmosphere, warming the global temperature with rippling catastrophic climate effects around the world.

What we’ll be doing while there:

My role as an invited artist on this residency is to make a series of artwork and art products that share the importance of protecting the Maijuna and the dense rainforest around them. While I have vague ideas for the products and prints I will produce back in my Pittsburgh studio after my time in the rainforest, I know I want to focus on the vast biodiversity of the rainforest and how the wellbeing of these species are connected with the wellbeing of the Maijuna and the rest of the world.

Our group of artists and scientists will fly into Iquitos in the Loreto region of Peru, then we’ll be taking a 4-6 hour river boat ride up to our home base for the trip at the ExplorNapo Research Lodge and ACTS Field Station along the Sucusari River.

Our group will be working on a handful of projects over the course of the 20 days, including fieldwork out in the rainforest and community projects at the Maijuna village, located just north of the research lodge up the river. The fieldwork involves daytime and overnight treks with Maijuna elders in the rainforest to study mineral licks along the Sucusari River basin. Mineral licks are naturally occurring swamp-like sites in the rainforest where animals come to lick the soil to supplement their diets with needed micronutrients and clays. Our group will be taking soil samples from the licks and setting up camera traps around the sites to catch the visiting animals on camera, to provide evidence of the importance of these sites in the rainforest ecosystem.

The community projects at the Maijuna village include helping revitalize their stingless beekeeping project that took a hit from Covid and creating film, photo, and other creative content for the fight against the proposed highway development project. The Maijuna have been using bee products from native stingless bees species in their culture for generations. OnePlanet created a stingless beekeeping project years ago to empower the Maijuna to continue to use and sell sustainable bee products. This project provides a stable, sustainable source of income for the Maijuna to purchase needed supplies; income that may otherwise need to come from contracting with exploitative industries. Covid has slowed the progress of the stingless beekeeping project as Maijuna families turned their attention to their own health and that of their family and neighbors. With tourism halted, the market for bee honey was stifled too, so we will be helping revitalize this project on our days spent at the village.

As one of the artists/content creators, I will have the flexibility to partake in different projects each day as well as have free time to sketch, write, and collect pigments & textures to print in my effort to create artwork that advocates for the Maijuna and the rainforest in the fight against the proposed highway development project. I will also be working with our trip leaders to help define and establish a regular Artist-in-Residence Program at the research lodge. Our goal is to create an established program to bring a continual stream of change-making artists in to work with the Maijuna and research scientists to advocate against the road development project.

Some thoughts before my departure:

To me, this residency experience is far more than an Artist-in-Residence program with the goal of expanding my art inspiration, practice, style and body of work. While this is still one of my goals with this trip, this opportunity to advocate for a vulnerable indigenous group, the biodiversity of the Amazon Rainforest and therefore the wellbeing of the planet is a far more important and humbling mission. I am both excited and nervous for this opportunity, knowing I will be stepping out of my comfort zone over the next month—and I can’t wait to share the experience with you!

I will have limited access to wifi at the research lodge but will do my best to share updates with you all along the way with photos to my Instagram. Either way, I’ll definitely be sharing it all with you in depth when I return at the end of the month!

What you can do to help save the peruvian rainforest & the maijuna community:

OnePlanet, who has been working with Maijuna for over 20 years, made a beautiful 1-hour documentary that you can watch to learn more about the Maijuna, the road development project and our mission to protect the rainforest and the Maijuna Indigenous lands & traditional culture. You can watch the documentary via the button below, and if it inspires you, please share it with your friends and family too. We cannot do this work alone and we need more people to know and care about fighting this illegal highway development project now, before it is too late.

You can also donate to OnePlanet below. 100% of your donation will help OnePlanet support and empower the Maijuna in their fight against the highway development project.

watch the documentary

make a donation to help