Disruptions

Disruptions. Intaglio, Chine-Collé. 45cm x 45cm. 2022. 

Disruptions is the eleventh print in my artist's book. In this print, a large group of indigenous figures is marching and blocking a road. The repeated layering of the figures darkens the tone and helps to give them a stronger presence. Now the positions are reversed from previous prints: the indigenous figures take centre stage and fill out a large portion of the image. The figures of politicians and settlers are pushed to the corner and forced to watch (and act!). The action of the road closure gives visibility to a community that was overlooked and marginalized time and time again. 

This print is a representation of frustration, strength, endurance, resilience and hope. In 2015, members of the Xákmok Kásek (Sanapaná and Enxet Sur) community blocked the main highway that runs through the Chaco to demand that their ancestral land be returned to them. For 30 years, they lived landless along the sides of the highway on a strip of public land. When I was a kid, we would pass the huts built from palm trunks and tents built from tarps on our way from my hometown to the city. I often wondered how people could survive in such extreme poverty, but at 130km/h drive-by speed, it was a rather fleeting image. The road closure forced drivers to stop. I understand there was a lot of anger and frustration on behalf of the drivers and interrupted transport traffic, but in comparison to the thirty year fight the Xákmok Kásek community has fought, sitting a few hours on a highway seems rather insignificant. 

In 2010, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the land belonged to the Xákmok Kásek. However, the Paraguayan government didn't act on the ruling to return the lands; this inaction lead to the protests and road closures in 2015, ultimately resulting in the return of a portion of the ancestral lands. To me, this protest symbolizes a direction of thinking that interrupts colonial patterns, that different ways of thinking, acting, and being are indeed possible. 

I would like to point out, that there are differences between Enxet Sur and the Enlhet Norte. While not uncontroversial in its own right (as you can see in previous prints and texts in my book), the Enlhet Norte have somewhat more stability, in that the Mennonites have purchased (and own) some land on which they can live, with various opportunities to earn money through wage labour. To my understanding, the Enxet Sur are largely surrounded by ranches with little opportunity to work and until the victory of this one group limited or no access to land to live on. (Some land has been purchased by various missionary organizations, but it is not sufficient for subsistence).