Guardians of another time, resilience and ecofeminism

In these portraits, in which the subjects look directly at the camera, the intention is to forge a connection between the seed guardians of the Bijagó people and the viewer, highlighting the power of their expression and reinforcing the leading role of these caretakers of the land, who stand resilient against climate change and cashew monoculture. I photographed them in their everyday settings: home, backyard, bembas (granaries) and the bush. They remain steadfast, allowing for precise documentation, so as not to interfere with their myriad daily tasks.

The Bijagós have a matriarchal structure and their cultural practices are closely linked to the nature of the islands, recognised by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve. Sábado Maio, Beatriz Lopes, Anjuleta Gomes, Maimuna Augusto, Esperança Correia, Sábado Madjo and Sábado Luís speak in Bijagó and Creole, preserving for ‘the time to come’ and sowing for ‘another time’. They live on the islands of Formosa, Nago and Chediã (or Maio Island), within the Urok Islands Community Marine Protected Area in Guinea-Bissau, and emphasise three messages: the seminal role of Guinean women in working the land, ensuring the family’s food sovereignty; the burden of tasks that has characterised the functioning of societies; and agroecological awareness, linked to the ancestral knowledge of seed conservation, combating the extinction of the Bijagó people’s practices.

Now, look at the hands: protagonists of this relationship with the sacred forest. They plunge into the earth and peer into mystical depths, stirring up traces of ancestry. They are home, shelter, harvests, granaries, rakes, toil, nurturing, healing, cradle, love. In every texture lies the history of times of cultivation and harvest, the practical skill of those who know how to read the clouds and decipher the earth’s warm breath before and after the rain.

Thus, this exhibition, The Seed Guardians, responds to the urgency of documenting the lives of our ancestral women. This project began in 2022, with a journalism grant (ACEP and Camões Institute). This work was published in Público (Azul) and in The Guardian. It

will also take the form of a documentary. It stems from a sense of documentary urgency and blends transmedia languages, using photography, video and sound to create a more synaesthetic dimension, whilst respecting the rhythms of the places. For example, during the days I spent on the Urok Islands, the heavy tropical rain — increasingly abnormal and untimely — disrupted my filming schedule. I was alone in gathering images, sound and video, so I was limited in what I could do, whilst time slipped away. I had to make the most of every moment to build up an archive. 

The slow rhythm of the islands took hold, and thus the opportunity for observation revealed life unfolding in sequence shots, allowing me to find in contemplation the breathing space necessary for the narratives, in the appreciation of ecofeminism, establishing a dialogue on ecological issues and the practice of ancestral female knowledge.

Vanessa Ribeiro-Rodrigues

Exhibition on display from 15 June to 27 July 2024

CREDITS

Photographs, sound and videos: Vanessa Ribeiro Rodrigues

Photo editing: António Morais

Video editing: Ana Almeida

Translation from Bijagó and Creole: José António Abu and Zaida Lopes Pereira

Support: ACEP, Camões, Tiniguena

Project funded by the Portuguese Republic, DGARTES | RPAC

MIRA FORUM

Directed by Manuela Matos Monteiro and João Lafuente

Assistant: Luísa Rosas da Silva

Vanessa Ribeiro Rodrigues is a filmmaker, journalist, and researcher. She holds a PhD in Communication Studies for Development and graduated in Documentary Filmmaking and Screenwriting from the International Film Academy of São Paulo and EICTV – Cuba. She has lived and worked in Brazil, Jordan, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau, developing projects focused on narratives for social change.

She is the author of the documentaries *Baptismo de Terra* (2017), which received an award at the Avanca Film Festival, and the films currently in post-production *O Feitiço de Areia* and *Guardiãs de Sementes*. She has also published *O Barulho do Tempo* (2013), *Ala Feminina* (2018), and *Cadernos de Arte e Comunidade* (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2022).