MINE: What is Ours in the Wake of Extraction 2023

Extract: a) to draw forth (as by research) ; b) to pull or take out forcibly ; c) to obtain by much effort from someone or something unwilling.

The Earth system has now entered the Anthropocene, a geological age in which plantation monocultures, pollution, and industrial-scale resource extraction are damaging or destroying vital ecological systems on which the planet and its biological diversity depend. Globally dominant modes of human existence are driving us towards ecological collapse. Due to our ethically untenable relationship to nature, the Earth System is in crisis. Moreover, large numbers of people who have done nothing to cause this crisis are most exposed to its consequences. Many come from cultural traditions that enrich and perpetuate healthy biodiversity as the means to ensure mutual flourishing. These Indigenous ‘wisdom traditions’ are widely recognised for their sustainable world views and sophisticated understanding of our interdependence within the Earth System. 

The Amazon is a central focus of the most consequential geopolitical and environmental concerns of our time. It is a vast, rugged, beautifully diverse expanse that is integral to the Earth System’s ecological well-being yet has been continuously invaded by numerous resource exploitation interests severely lacking in sustainable administrative policies. Within this setting the region’s original custodians are under threat despite significant scientific research affirming that Indigenous environmental stewardship perpetuates biodiversity which ensures inter species flourishing. Although this is beneficial to us all, it remains a struggle for Indigenous peoples to uphold their rights, maintain their cultural traditions, and preserve their ancestral knowledge and lands. Projects such as these help raise awareness of the importance of Indigenous ancestral knowledge in regards to protecting the environment. Today, such traditions are calling out to be seen, understood and honoured.

From this perspective, MINE: What is Ours in the Wake of Extraction seeks to amplify indigenous worldviews through the presentation of artworks by the Etochime Harakbut Artist Collective from the Madre de Dios region of the southern Peruvian Amazon, an area heavily impacted by contamination from the illegal gold mining boom of the past 20 years there. MINE also features works relevant to thematics of resource extraction by a South African art project known as PLOT, thus drawing parallels between distinct geographic locations with shared extractive impacts. PLOT Art led by South African artist Jeannette Unite contextualises themes of extraction through a global focus on the archive as a mechanism of extraction. Through her project PLOT, Jeannette uses her collection of mined materials and obsolete teaching archives from more than 30 countries, to examine how the Earth is owned, measured, divided, and allocated by title deeds and legal rights that govern land and resources. Through its multifaceted meanings, the word PLOT connotes a conspiracy, mapping a chain of events into a storyline where legal systems are meant to balance economies and environments dependant on resource extraction that has always involved the dispossession of Indigenous communities off their land. Unite’s concept PLOT refers to the cryptic role the law plays in the distribution of land rights and the appropriation of land in the (in)justice system.