Sallisa Rosa’s Resistência [Resistance] (2018–ongoing) evidences a symbol of resistance and survival of rural workers and indigenous peoples throughout the world. Considered one of the oldest utensils created by humans, the machete carries the power to cut and to clear paths. The artwork brings together images of machetes belonging to the artist’s family members and people close to her, referencing their uses, functions, and history. The images are also a direct reference to the indigenous leader Tuíra Kayapó, who threatened the president of Eletronorte with a machete in 1989, protesting against the construction of the Belo Monte dam in Pará. This event was widely disseminated by the media and became part of the history of the Indigenous Movement. This series of posters can be installed outdoors, intervening in the cityscape and destabilizing the prevailing public order in different ways. Rosa is an urban indigenous person who closely followed the struggle of her father and brother, who lived and resisted—along with dozens of indigenous people—in the Aldeia Maracanã, an urban indigenous village located in the building of the former Museum of the Indigenous People, in Rio de Janeiro. After seven years of occupation, several indigenous families were evicted by the government of Rio de Janeiro and were relocated to different parts of the city. Currently, Rosa lives with her family and relatives in a public housing project, while the repossession of Aldeia Maracanã undergoes a new phase of occupation. Rosa’s artistic practice and life are inseparable. Her works call for greater attention to the indigenous struggle for land demarcation, the role of indigenous women in this fight, and the visibility of people with self-declared indigenous identity, evidencing the existence of a larger group of indigenous people in Brazil.
— Beatriz Lemos, master in social history of culture, PUC‑RJ, 2019
