TIPIK AND KUNANI: our memory is here

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In the Wapichana territories in Roraima, Brazil there are important leaders who teach about plants and Wapichana knowledge that were taken and patented by European people. Tipik and Kunani are ancient Wapichana plants and forms of knowledge which today are part of German ownership in the context of biopiracy for the pharmaceutical industry. What challenges does accessing this information present today in what is referred to as reparations? How can justice and dignity manifest in a space so far from Wapichana territories, yet still establish connections with Wapichana memories that lie beneath the mud of the ground, as well as in pharmacies?

Gustavo Caboco Wapichana, from the Wapichana peoples, works in the fields of visual arts, literature and cinema. His production unfolds in multiple languages, such as drawing, painting, textiles, installation, performance, photography, video, sound and text, constituting devices for reflection on the displacement of Indigenous bodies, the processes of (re)territorialisation and the production of memory. Among his most important exhibitions, he took part in the 34th São Paulo Biennial in 2021. In 2024, he co-curated the Hãhãwpuá Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with Arissana Pataxó and Denilson Baniwa.