TIRA-RUIM

Tira-ruim is a tale composed of images shot at an annual reunion with indigenous peoples from all over Brazil. The photos were produced in 2022, the year in which the event resumed post-pandemic, and will be part of a book of the same name.

The project comes after the pandemic subsided, in the first year in which it was possible to resume the event that takes place annually in Chapada dos Veadeiros, at the center of the Brazilian territory, called Aldeia Multiétnica, in which a meeting of the most diverse Brazilian indigenous ethnicities takes place. In 2022, the year when these photos were taken, the participating groups were Fulni-o, Guarani Mbya, Kariri Xoco, Kayapo Mebengroke, Kraho, Tawanarawana and Xavante. Jair Messias Bolsonaro's government and his leadership as the president during the pandemic produced catastrophic effects for the entire country, but mainly genocidal against indigenous peoples, in a gross destruction of their rights in terms of land demarcation, access to health and health information and awareness regarding COVID-19, easing the permissiveness of illegal mining, hate speech, and the list goes on. The resumption of this meeting unanimously accused Bolsonaro of being a murderer, and defended the importance of indigenous peoples remaining united in the face of barbarism. Me and a non-binary photographer friend, resident of the city of Alto Paraíso de Goiás, where the meeting takes place, got together to photograph and follow the event, me in analogue and him in digital. The attached photos were all taken in 35mm by me, with Kodak Portra 400 and Kodak Gold 200 films. During the days spent there, I wrote a lot about what we witnessed, which also resulted in a literary text. The two things together make up a book of the same name, Tira-Ruim, for which we are still in the process of raising money to be able to produce it. With the amount raised from sales, we will allocate part to all the people photographed. Below is an excerpt from the preface that makes up the texts of the book: “As intimate as discovering someone’s dream journal, the text that introduces the content of this book guides you to awaken: the unconscious, when confronted with the images already soaked in the narrative – which transits between reality and dream, where it’s not possible to define at what point one begins and the other ends – is mobilized, provoked, sensitized by the oneiric atmosphere that dares and floods the concrete, crosses with its strenght-delicacy making it impossible not to ignite the desire to enter the scenes. Ojalá, I long: the awaken to live a utopia of Brazil, to climb the sky to unveil what it can be, to fly with your feet on the ground, becoming more and more indigenous.” This project is in support of the reconstruction of Brazil's indigenous policy and the "headdress frontbench".