“This Is Indigenous Land”: Adapting and Protesting Colonialist Discourses through Graffiti in Forte Dos Reis Magos, Brazil
摘要
In 2023, a monumental series of graffiti was painted on the walls of Forte dos Reis Magos, Brazil, a fortress built by Portuguese colonizers in 1599. The text read “No to PL/2903” and “This is Indigenous land,” alongside Indigenous graphic designs in red paint. The graffiti responded to a proposal in the Brazilian Supreme Court that would have meant a considerable loss of Indigenous rights and would have threatened Amazonian biodiversity and the world’s climate. This chapter argues that the adaptive practices here are twofold: in relation to the technique employed, the lettering, graphics, and red paint adapt Indigenous people’s imagery; and the targeted wall transforms the institutional narrative, appropriating the white walls of the Portuguese colonization and turning it into a representation of the colonial extirpation of Indigenous lands. This case study not only demonstrates an intertwining of adaptation and graffiti studies but also shows how graffiti has been adopted and adapted by climate change protesters in Brazil, who are simultaneously adapting narratives about the country’s colonization and the violence that has been continually perpetrated on Indigenous people and the environment.