As part of the Art for Impact cultural event series, the Intalcon Foundation is showing works by German photographer Markus Mauthe on the theme of "Indigenous Peoples."
Markus Mauthe has set out in search of the world's last indigenous peoples. For three years he was on the road in the most diverse countries of the world. In West Papua, Namibia, Myanmar, Brazil, Russia or Ethiopia. Always on the lookout for people from small ethnic groups originally living far away from civilization, to whom civilization is moving increasingly close - and thus changing their lives forever.
When Markus is on the road, it's all about the habitats of our planet. The exceptional photographer travels to the most remote areas of the world and visits indigenous people groups whose habitats are threatened by the rapid expansion of the resource-wasting Western lifestyle and economic interests.
His expeditions have taken him through crisis-ridden South Sudan and he has visited the remote Omo Valley in Ethiopia's far south. In Southeast Asia, he explored Myanmar, long shielded from the West, and in Indonesia he photographed the Bajau people known as sea nomads.
Mauthe met people who have adapted perfectly to cold living conditions in Chukotka, the northeasternmost tip of Russia. In the largest tropical forest on earth, the Amazon in South America, the photographer witnessed a wide variety of living conditions of small groups of indigenous people. To this day, the lives of these people are often strongly connected with nature.
But in the globalized world, the influence of modernity now reaches to the far corners of the planet, so the lives of indigenous peoples are also undergoing major changes.
In South Sudan, between the White Nile and the southeastern border area with Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, live the Mundari, the Jiye and the Suri. The landscape there is barren. Provided enough rain falls, it yields no more than fodder grass for the cattle herd and some cereals such as sorghum.
Herds of cattle provide food and guarantee economic independence. And because people are mobile and frugal, it is traditionally not the possession of land but its temporary accessibility that is decisive. It is not the land that makes people rich, but the cattle.
Indigenous ethnic groups such as the Padaung, the Kaywe and the Chin live in partly mountainous regions that are difficult to access. The remaining small part of the Ruhingya religious minority also lives here. Around the Inle Lake the group of the Intha settles.
Indigenous ethnic groups such as the Padaung, the Kaywe and the Chin live in partly mountainous regions that are difficult to access. Around Inle Lake, the Intha group settles. Rice cultivation and fishing are the main sources of income. During the British colonial period, the various minorities were disadvantaged. This discrimination has not changed during the various, often brutal military regimes, nor in today's at least formally democratic state. The Muslim Rohingya in particular suffer from this. They are even denied citizenship. Many live in forced exile in Bangladesh.
In the Amazon in Brazil, in the Xingo Basin, the Mehinaku have lived from fishing for centuries. Markus Mauthe photographed them in the morning mist. Backlit by the sun, a hunter in a stale canoe keeps his balance standing with his bow and arrow. His children no longer have this ability to catch fish like this. Habits and dexterity at work are being lost and increasingly overlaid by the modern, western-global lifestyle.
Politicians in the country see the rainforest primarily for its economic potential and not as a habitat and cultural area worthy of protection. And because the sale of agricultural products - above all soy - promises great turnover, there is no quick solution for an end to the irrevocable destruction of unique habitat and its utilization for the modern (agricultural) economy.
The San are among the first human inhabitants of southern Africa. Since colonial times, the arable land in Namibia has been predominantly in the hands of white settlers. Land around which a fence has been drawn and is alien to a semi-nomadic people like the San or the Himba. Their herds of cows and goats always have to move and so find food on the few remaining open spaces.
Contact with the "outside world" comes mainly through tourists. The barely veiled skin as well as the hairstyle, which is embalmed with a paste of butterfat and grated, ocher-colored stones to protect it from the sun, together with the elaborate jewelry, exerts a great fascination on them.
It is probably their unique headdress and the artistic staging of the body with harmoniously arranged scars and expressive painting that have made the Bodi, Mursi, Kara or Hamar so well known. Many things have a special meaning. Sometimes as a sign of social status, as belonging to an age group or as a sign of success in warlike conflicts.
The loss of biodiversity will have similarly catastrophic consequences as climate change - warned the president of the UN World Biodiversity Council Robert. About one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction. No insects means no pollination. No pollination means no food. A chain reaction that ultimately affects the last link in the chain - all of us. This makes understanding and respect for the indigenous population all the more important.
Indians in the Amazon are the guardians of the forest. Their way of cultivating crops, for example, helps to increase natural diversity. Scientific results show that more plants and also more plant species grow around their settlements than in the uninhabited parts. The Aluku of French Guyana distinguish 90 varieties of cassava, and their neighbors, the Wayana, cultivate 28 species and 129 varieties. This diversity - rather than monoculture - helps protect our own (over)lives.
Living in harmony with nature is the declared vision of the United Nations. Targets are set to help achieve ten milestones by 2030, thereby promoting the conservation and protection of at least 30 percent of the Earth's land and oceans (see "Global Biodiversity Framework" under "Further Knowledge" below).
Markus grew up in a family of photographers on Lake Constance. He was born in 1969 and visited Africa for the first time when he was 17. At 20, he crossed New Zealand by mountain bike. As a trained industrial and advertising photographer, he started his own business as early as 1991. He worked for Greenpeace for 20 years and gives up to 120 lectures a year.
In the meantime, he has traveled to more than 80 countries, in some cases several times, and photographed them. For his project "Lost - At the edges of the world", only a small part of the results of which can be seen here, he spent three years on 13 trips visiting and portraying 22 indigenous peoples in remote regions.
Note: The texts used on this page are partly taken from the book "Lost - An den Rändern der Welt" and are subject to copyright protection. Copyright © 2018 Markus Mauthe/Florens Eckert, Knesebeck Verlag.
Markus is the founder of AMAP (Almada Mata Atlântica Project), a non-profit conservation organization working to preserve and expand the already highly fragmented Mata Atlântica rainforest on the east coast of Brazil.
Brazil is his second home. There he runs an organic cocoa farm on 400 hectares with his wife and two children. And if you want to meet him in person, we recommend the over 160-year-old, original colonial-style guest house there; you can see it at
https://www.markus-mauthe.de/
"The film shows how civilization has made its way to the far corners of this world. It raises complex questions and doesn't pretend to know the answers itself." (Badische Zeitung).
"A calmly delivered lesson in sustainability that makes the viewer aware that with the loss of these tribes, invaluable knowledge is also lost." (Weser-Kurier)
This global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services was conducted by about 150 selected experts from all regions of the world, including 16 young scientists, supported by 350 authors. More than 15,000 scientific publications, as well as extensive indigenous and local knowledge, were analyzed.
Under the title "Art for Impact", the Intalcon Foundation makes its website available to ambitious visual artists as a platform for exhibitions. Especially in times of pandemic, too many doors remain closed to culture. Here, the Foundation wants to be supportive on the one hand, and at the same time use art as an effective means and form of expression for environmentally and socially critical messages. For this reason, the artists selected by the Intalcon Foundation always have a connection to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. They use the language of art to attract attention and to stimulate reflection.
The aerial photographs by the Chinese artist and scientist Dr. Yi Sun showcase the beauty of nature with a breathtaking selection of motifs. At the same time, they also symbolize the influence of man on this planet. From an unusual perspective - often from more than 1000 meters above the ground - they raise awareness for climate change and for a neglected environment marked by exploitation and destruction.
