Mbuti International Exhibit Debuts at Antioch University Santa Barbara
Posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) – “Globalization and the demands of contemporary economics, politics, and technology are causing irreversible deforesting; the Mbuti’s existence is seriously threatened. They cannot survive without the Forest, which is the source of their food, shelter, identity, and connection to spirit,” said Barbara Savage, President and Founder of the Tribal Trust Foundation and AUSB alumna, who brings the exhibit to the university.”I am so happy to have the opportunity to help the Mbuti people in any way we can,” shares AUSB President Nancy Leffert. “We consider it an honor to have the exhibit debut on our campus.”
The exhibit will premiere with a reception open to the public on March 1st from 6:00-8:00pm at AUSB, 801 Garden Street in Santa Barbara. The Mbuti exhibit will be available for viewing by the public on AUSB’s campus through March 31st.
“The Tribal Trust is grateful to Antioch University Santa Barbara for supporting this vitally important project. This art exhibition brings honor and awareness to the Mbuti as a form of protection,” adds Ms. Savage.
The exhibit will open as a part of AUSB’s community collaboration surrounding the presidential inauguration of Dr. Nancy Leffert.
The Mbuti people, who are pygmy hunter-gatherers, are among the oldest indigenous people of the Congo region of Africa, having lived in the Ituri forest sustainably for tens of thousands of years. The Ituri is the world’s second largest rainforest, home to about 250,000 to 500,000 Pygmies, according to Survival International. The Mbuti population in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) totals about 30,000 to 40,000 living in small bands ranging form 15 to 60 people. Over the last generation, the lives of the Mbuti have changed dramatically because the land they live on is not protected by law, so deforestation, gold mining, and mass waves of migrants desperate for land threatens their existence.
The intention of the Mbuti exhibit is to foster global support for preservation of the rainforest in the DRC and for protection of the indigenous people who have lived there sustainably for thousands of years. The goal of the Tribal Trust is to protect the indigenous Mbuti hunter-gatherers from enslavement, displacement, disempowerment, murder and other aggressive acts of genocide, including the destruction of their environment from commercial exploitation of natural resources.
The Tribal Trust has received DRC government support for the project. A number of staff members from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art volunteered their time to assist with the project. The volunteers include Karen Sinsheimer, SBMA Curator of Photography, curator of the exhibition; Lisa Volpe, SBMA Curatorial Assistant who is writing the titles and assisting the curator; Nancy Rogers, SBMA Art Preparator who is matting and framing the photographs; John Coplin, SBMA Facilities Manager who is loaning the frames; and Patsy Hicks, SBMA Director of Education, who is creating the education component for Santa Barbara-area schools. Georgia McDermott, SBMA Museum Store Manager and Treasurer of the Tribal Trust Foundation and Ms. Savage, SBMA Museum Store Buyer and President of the Tribal Trust Foundation are responsible for organizing the project. As well, the Smithsonian Institution is loaning three photographs from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives to the Mbuti exhibit.
