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.

 

From this perspective, MINE: What is Ours in the Wake of Extraction seeks to amplify Indigenous worldviews specifically as they pertain to land relationship and sustainability by presenting art works by the Etochime Artist Collective that render the impact of extractive industries on the Harakbut Indigenous community from the region of Madre de Dios in the southern Peruvian Amazon- an area heavily impacted by contamination from the illegal gold mining boom of the past 20 years there. MINE will also present works relevant to thematics of resource extraction by San Francisco Art Institute alumni, the Bay Area having been an area heavily impacted by the Gold Rush of 1848-1855, thus drawing parallels between these distinct geographic locations with a shared extractive impact. 

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MINE aims to embrace a democratic and inclusive approach. 

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