Annabel’s and The Caring Family Foundation (TCFF) have unveiled ‘Winds of Yawanawa’, a prestigious artwork by the Yawanawa community, indigenous to the Brazilian Amazon, and trailblazing new media artist Refik Anadol.
The presentation of the artwork coincides with the annual Annabel’s for the Amazon campaign in support of The Caring Family Foundation’s reforestation projects in the Amazon rainforest. From Richard and Patricia Caring’s private collection, the artwork will be on display at the Club until 25th September.
This first-of-its-kind co-creation between the Yawanawá community and Refik Anadol was curated and commissioned by Impact One, as part of Possible Futures: a programme exploring new equitable ways of collaboration with indigenous communities. With its support of the programme, Annabel’s and The Caring Family Foundation are extending their already significant engagement in the state of Acre, Brazil. The
Yawanawa community neighbours the Nukini community which is supported by the ongoing work of TCFF.
My wife Patricia and I are heavily involved in the Amazon through the foundation. We’re on track to have planted 2 million trees by March 2024 and we get great support from our Members and our friends whenever we mention the Amazon because it really is the heart and lungs of the earth. The life and spirit that the Yawanawá so obviously show and inspire, keeping the Amazon as you can, natural as before, it’s a beautiful thing to see.
Richard Caring, Co-chair of Annabel’s and Founder of The Caring Family Foundation
The ‘Winds of Yawanawa’ artwork series has raised more than 3M USD to date, ahead of its London debut at Annabel’s. It marks the start of a historic collaboration but is also one of the highest-value and most successful NFT sales of the year. Proceeds from the sale of the series directly support the Yawanawá, enabling long-term initiatives to safeguard their lands and cultural heritage, setting an unprecedented standard in the successful co-creation of equitable revenue streams for indigenous communities.
For Refik Anadol, this collaboration is his
most meaningful and purposeful project of the year
The artwork harnesses real-time weather data from the Yawanawá sacred village of Aldeia Sagrada. In a mesmerising play of traditional shapes and colours, the series is a living and dynamically evolving representation of the Yawanawá identity and the community’s connection to their Amazonian territory.
The piece acts as a visual reminder of the fundamental ecosystem for humanity that ‘the Annabel’s for the Amazon campaign’ and The Caring Family Foundation strive to protect.
This year’s Annabel’s for the Amazon campaign will allow TCFF to invest even further in social projects within the state of Acre, empowering women and generating income for local and indigenous communities. With a steadfast commitment to creating positive change and by listening to the leaders of local and indigenous people, TCFF will expand its efforts to two more indigenous communities and traditional families including 193 remarkable women, (34 single mothers), alongside their partners in Brazil, SOS Amazônia.
This partnership that we are building with Refik and Impact One is intended to bolster our communities, strengthen our people, our culture, and our spirituality, and empower us to defend and protect our forest. It also shows us that we are not alone and that we have allies around the world. This project can serve as a model for collaboration and relationship-building between Indigenous peoples and large companies and influential artists.
Chief Nixiwaka
At the heart of TCFF is its vision of a world where women and children can thrive, stretching tree-planting initiatives further than environmental preservation, to generate sustainable food and income which better the futures of thousands throughout the Amazon. Focusing on implementing supply chains that encourage the use of the community’s products, resulting in an increase in income generation for families
by 100% in the first year of the project and providing growth of 30% to 50% in the following three years. As part of TCFF’s continued work in Brazil, the Foundation to date has successfully planted an impressive 1.75 million trees and seedlings and is on track to achieve 2 million by March 2024. This commitment puts TCFF as the leading UK donor to reforestation in Brazil.
About
The Winds of Yawanawa artwork series consists of three large museum-quality Data Sculptures each lasting eight minutes. Accompanying these is a collection of 1,000 distinct NFT Data Paintings, derived from the main artworks. The NFT Data Paintings were dropped as the Genesis collection of the newly created Yawanawá & Refik Anadol ledger, minted using a unique smart contract to highlight the
collaboration with the community and provide transparent insight into the distribution of the proceeds from the NFT sales. Unique in its conception, Winds of Yawanawa harnesses real-time weather data sourced from the sacred Yawanawá village of Aldeia Sagrada, in the Brazilian state of Acre. The artwork series is based on the traditional paintings of young Yawanawá artists Nawashahu and Mukashahu and merged with weather data that includes wind speed, gusts, direction and temperature. The data determines the movement of the artwork, creating a mesmerising play of traditional shapes and colours. The series is a living and dynamically evolving representation of the Yawanawá identity and the community’s connection to their Amazonian territory – a fundamental ecosystem for humanity. Winds of Yawanawa was created as part of Impact One’s Possible Futures initiative in collaboration with the Yawanawá, to help plant the seeds for a more integrative approach to sustainability in the future. The proceeds raised from the sale are being transferred to the Yawanawá community through blockchain technology. The funds will be deployed by Yawanawá Chiefs Biraci Nixiwaka Brasil, Putanny Yawanawá and Isku Kua Biraci Brasil Junior to support the long-term wellbeing and protection of the Yawanawá territories, preserving cultural heritage, and benefiting the collective Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon.
Annabel’s for the Amazon is an annual fundraiser held in September at Annabel’s private members club, in London. The event supports The Caring Family Foundation’s reforestation work in Brazil, through tree-planting initiatives. Throughout the month, Annabel’s dedicates its entire programme of events, themed to raise awareness, educate on and support the Foundation’s environmental initiative. The appearance of the façade has become a highly anticipated date within London’s social calendar and has been designed with the purpose to shed light on current issues in the Rainforest through the celebration of art, as well as educating Annabel’s members and passers-by on the importance of Amazon conservation efforts and the effect that its rapid destruction is having on our global ecosystem. annabel’s.co.uk
The Caring Family Foundation was set up in 2019 by Richard and Patricia Caring in response to a desire to feel more connected to the impact and outcome of their philanthropy. They wanted to focus on causes close to their hearts and be hands-on, remaining close to the journeys of the families and communities we work alongside. The Caring Family Foundation’s vision is a world free from hunger, harm and hurt, where women and children can thrive. Its mission is to work towards that world to ensure every child has access to a nutritious meal, every woman is free to make her own choices without violence and rainforest communities can flourish through tree-planting initiatives. The Caring Family Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of women, with children at the heart of all that we do. We work to tackle child poverty,
deforestation and domestic abuse, in the UK and Brazil, with our core focus remaining on women and children across these areas. In May 2023, TCFF sponsored three indigenous filmmakers, who curated the ECHOES Indigenous Film Festival, to travel to the UK for the festival hosted by People’s Palace Projects at Queen Mary’s University of London, in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art. thecaringfamilyfoundation.org
The NGO was created in the 80s when big areas of forests were replaced by cattle pastures. At that time, the rubber tappers’ movement was joining forces to block devastation and guarantee the right of possession of their settlements. Moved by the resistance of the forest’s guardians, teachers, university students and representatives of the social movement, including the activist and rubber tapper Chico Mendes, created the SOS Amazônia Association in 1988, having as main objective to defend the Amazon Rainforest, supporting traditional populations. For the last three decades, SOS Amazônia has been promoting biodiversity conservation and the growth of environmental awareness. Its actions are aligned with three strategic programmes: sustainable forest business, climate change and recovery of forest landscape; and environmental governance and policy. sosamazonia.org.br/en
Impact One is an impact investment initiative dedicated to restoring a balance between nature and urban life. To create nature-positive economies, Impact One is establishing a new asset class of infrastructure that places interconnected human and environmental wellbeing at its core, under the name of Wellbeing Infrastructure. Through evidence-based research and full life-cycle impact assessments, Impact One
introduces scalable solutions for developing social and economic models that reintegrate nature into cities and creates visible and measurable positive impact on environmental and societal health. Impact One launched the Possible Futures programme, which looks into concepts to redesign the anthropogenic impact on ecosystems through existing evidence-based and scalable solutions. Through its affiliate Ikona
Collection, Impact One works with cultural creators to facilitate programmes and initiatives that bridge the gap between art, culture and society and reconnect people with a greater sense of well-being. Impact One was co-initiated by the wellbeing leader Therme Group. impact.one
Possible Futures is an array of initiatives, dedicated to cultivating nature-positive and symbiotic modes of living globally to ensure a long-term future of life on the planet. The programme offers holistic and regenerative perspectives, reshaping how we inhabit and interact with the natural environment to co-develop a shared perspective on true value impact. Acknowledging the fact that when applying
‘universal law’, nearly all human enterprise and activities inevitably lead us towards futures that are not possible, Possible Futures redefines the value of Indigenous culture, ecosystems, and resources to establish a global network of collaborative efforts that secure a nature-positive outcome for present and future generations. possiblefutures.one
