Yvy-mara ey (Tierra sin mal / Land without evil) by Mauricio Holc
Awarded Grand Prize for the SUGi x NAVA Photography competition.
Mauricio Holc is a queer visual storyteller who creatively celebrates his community, especially addressing and investigating issues of identity, territory, corporalities, communities and the environment as a collective paradigm.
From hand building and designing sets, there is a fine painterly quality to how Mauri approaches making images. With a love for fashion and documentary, Mauri’s work creates spaces of diverse voices from what can be seen as a far off place to people around the world celebrating specially the LGBTQIA+ community. His vision as an artist is closely linked to his deconstruction as a human being, his identity process and the need and desire to tell stories that go through him, to his reality and the realities that surround him.
Yvy-mara ey (Tierra sin mal / Land without evil)
When the Spanish colonizers — 500 years ago — came into contact with the native Guaraní inhabitants of South America, they inferred that their culture was not spiritual, since they did not have temples or churches. However, the Guaraní have always had a deep spiritual sense that runs their lives. Their temple is Nature itself.
This visual project aims to give an account of the photographer's experience in encounters, friendship and learning-ship over the past few years with the Mbyá Guaraní community “Tekoa El Chapá”, approaching it from a non-invasive perspective and putting the focus on collective memory, the sense of community and what it represents nature for them.
The Mbyá Guaraní are the indigenous native people who inhabit southern Brazil, part of Paraguay and Misiones, northeast of Argentina, covered by rivers and an exuberant nature, with the most biodiversity in Argentina. Currently there are 120 Mbyá communities distributed in Misiones. Their mother tongue is “Mbyá”, from the Tupí-Guaraní tongue family. The word “mbyá” can be translated as “people” or “many people in one place.” In general terms, they preserve their traditional way of life called "tekoa", referring a territory where the "teko" or Guaraní “way of being” is practiced (agriculture, hunting and fishing, spirituality, etc)
The legacy of the Mbyá culture is transmitted orally and not in writing, their history and existence depend exclusively on collective and shared memory, emphasizing the “community”, fundamental for their survival. The evocation of collective memory allows survival and adheres to the acquired knowledge of the Mbyá people. They perceive the world and inhabit it according to the teachings of the elders, chiefs and spiritual leaders “opygya” of the community, who transmit generationally orally and gesturally everything that their creator “Ñanderu” taught them, their knowledge belongs to their immediate world.
Ñanderú, “The Creator”
To understand the worldview of the Mbyá people and their relationship with the land, it is necessary to talk about Ñanderú, “The Creator”, who gave them the nature, so that they could enjoy it and be part of it, everything they need is in it; the rivers, fish, fruits, plants and animals. The Mbyá are great environmentalists, for them the land is sacred and has no evil, it is used in a respectful and sustainable way.
In their language there is no specific word for nature, is directly linked to their reality. For them “nature” is everything, from spirituality to vital sustenance, nature and their creator (Ñanderu) are the same. The tree, honey or a bird; They are manifestations of Ñanderu.
“For us, nature is our very life, our existence, our memory.”
Hilario Castillo - Mburuvicha (Political leader of the community)
One of the gods that “Ñanderu” (the creator) created is “Jakaira”, owner of the life-giving smoke and spring. Jakaira is manifested in the smoke of the pipe that the Mbyá smoke, it is sacred and its use has a strong spiritual connotation of blessing and protection of the community. The pipe is an element that is shared, used in their daily lives and of great importance in their culture.
The subsistence of the Mbyá people occurs mainly through nature and its resources. In villages they usually build community spaces with medicinal, aromatic and decorative plants. The villages are always next to the jungle, they are organized on a large piece of land where they live in community and function exclusively in this way, sharing resources, experiences and teachings.
The orchids and exotic plants present in the subtropical jungle of Latin America are native species that grow on trees. They are of great value to indigenous communities either for decoration or for economic support. Much of the current indigenous economy is based on the sale of crafts and plants. The fruits of the jungle are fundamental foods for the Mbya Guaraní communities and for the animals that inhabit them, everything in nature itself is a living manifestation of “Ñanderu” (the creator). Everything is shared.
Water is one of the fundamental and vital elements for the Mbyá, both for recreation and to sustain life. One of the four gods created by Ñanderu (the creator) is “Tupa”, owner of water, rain, thunder and lightning. All Mbyá communities are close to a river where they play, bathe, fish, consume water and perform rituals, always in a respectful manner, asking permission from their creator. It is one of the favorite means of meeting in community.
The crafts of the Mbyá play an important role in understanding their culture and legacy; Not only do they represent an economic and leisure activity, but evoking the collective memory, they recreate the animals of their land using their acquired knowledge to transmit, cultivate, and keep their culture alive. The Mbyá use art to recreate their world, their life, their worldview; using only natural resources for this purpose. Everything is obtained from nature.
Mbyá Guaraní basketry has a very great cosmological and spiritual value in their culture, where its striking designs constitute their identity. Just as the “jurua” (white man) writes his history, the Mbyá Guaraní evoke the collective memory, and through nature, art and crafts transmit their history, knowledge and culture itself. All materials for the construction of baskets and various basketry objects are obtained from nature and worked manually with ancestral techniques taught by “Ñanderu” (their creator).
