October 1, 2022
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Fiona Frank
Environmental journalist Dom Phillips visited Halton
in 2021 along with his sister Sian Phillips, who led a choir in Halton Mill for many
years. He was travelling in Amazonia with indigenous expert Bruno Pereira,
investigating the undeclared war on indigenous communities and solutions to tackle
the destruction of the rain forest, when the two men were murdered by people
involved in illegal fishing. Dom was carrying out research on a new book, ‘How to
Save the Amazon’.
Dom’s book ‘How to Save the Amazon: A journalist’s deadly quest for answers’ has
been completed by a team of journalists and environmentalists and is now available
in bookshops nationally.
In November 2022 Halton Mill hosted & co-ordinated a number of events & exhibitions across the Lancaster district (and online) honouring Dom, Bruno and others risking their lives protecting the rain forests.
The exhibition, 'For Dom, Bruno and the Amazon'
has been updated and is available for loan to
educational and environmental organisations,
festivals and other venues. See below for more
information.
Follwo these links to find out about:
– the exhibition ‘For Dom, Bruno & the Amazon’
– the conference ‘How can we help to save the Rainforest’ (Lancaster, 19/20 Nov 2022)
– the online talks (Lancaster, November 2022)
– suggestions for further reading/watching/listening
The Events
The Conference, ‘How can we help to save the Rainforest’ took place on 19 & 20 November 2022 in Lancaster and online, in English and Portuguese.
You can see presentations from the conference here.
The conference brought together academics, activists, campaigning organisations,
and journalists from Amazonia and from the UK, with a keynote speech from
Indigenous leader Dr Nelly Marubo, and was organised by Halton Mill and Lancaster
University Environment Centre, and supported by Lancaster City Council.
The exhibition, ‘For Dom, Bruno & the Amazon’ was put together in 2022 by Fiona Frank, Alison Cahn, Domonique Davies and Rhiannon Davies, with the support of academics, journalists and filmmakers, activists and campaigning organisations from Lancaster and around the world. It was updated in 2025 with financial support from the National Union of Journalists to coincide with the launch of Dom’s book.
The exhibition honours Dom and Bruno and others who have lost their lives to this cause, and demonstrates aspects of the destruction of the rain forest, but also points to hopeful solutions and offer next steps and ways you can get involved and support positive change. We are keen to work with educational institutions and other organisations & festivals who wish to host the exhibition. You can see a low-res version of it here.
It consists of 15 A1 boards which can be displayed all together or you can choose to display just a few. We can loan out a version on light durable boards or another version on non-tearable waterproof paper, or we can make a hi res version available for printing and displaying (on a conference or festival wall or a school corridor for example). Contact dombrunoexhibition@gmail.com to discuss options.
The updated exhibition includes a short panel written for us by Samira de Castro,
President of the Brazilian National Union of Journalists, FENAJ. Here is a longer
article: ‘Three years without justice for Bruno and Dom: Brazil still fails to protect
those who defend the Amazon’ [link to PDF] also written for us by Samira.
Many thanks to all those who supported us to produce the original exhibition in 2022.
[link to Dom Bruno Amazon acknowledgements from 2022 version] and who have
helped us to produce the updated version in 2025.
The Conference, ‘How can we help to save the Rainforest’ took place on 19 & 20 November 2022 in Lancaster and online, in English and Portuguese.
You can see presentations from the conference here.
The conference brought together academics, activists, campaigning organisations, and journalists from Amazonia and from the UK, with a keynote speech from Indigenous leader Dr Nelly Marubo, and was organised by Halton Mill and Lancaster University Environment Centre, and supported by Lancaster City Council.
We held a programme of five talks about the Amazon, from academics and activists, in partnership with the Lancaster Continuing Learning Group. The first was on 2 November with Indigenous leader Dr Nelly Marubo talking about ‘human and non human relations – Indigenous ways of understanding the world’ (in Portuguese, from Manaus, with English interpretation). You can see recordings of the talks here.
In December 2022 we put together a RESOURCE BANK of just a few of the many films, books, websites, and other resources providing information on these issues, and we have now set up a ‘For Dom, Bruno and the Amazon’ FACEBOOK PAGE which can be updated by anyone – we hope that this page will become an ongoing resource for all. Find the page ‘here'
The raffle for an original oil painting by Janet Robinson, & a porcelain whale and a porcelain wren by Sarah Livingstone, was drawn on Wednesday 7 December. The raffle raised over £500 for the fund set up by Dom & Bruno’s families to support Univaja, the Indigenous Defenders of the Rainforest. Our activities in Lancaster, including this raffle and starting with a benefit concert at the end of September, raised nearly £3000 for the fund as well as bringing the crisis in the Amazon to the attention of many new people
The Gregson, More Music in Morecambe, The Dukes Theatre, Good Things Collective, and the Many Worlds Film Club were among other organisations hosting activities in Lancaster during the month.
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Sian Phillips, Dom Phillips’s sister, said about Lula’s election, on the day we launched our exhibition and series of events: “We are immensely relieved by the run-off election result, after a tense campaign, and hope that power transfers smoothly. We are encouraged by statements from Lula ally Marina Silva that the new government will honour Dom, Bruno and many others who have died defending the Amazon, and that they will put conservation centre stage” (See the full statement here,)
Sian visited Halton Mill on 28 October, two days before the launch of the exhibition and the series of events, to speak about the importance of the exhibition and the issues it covers.
The exhibition and the whole programme was launched on Sunday 30 October, with more than 100 people present to hear Sian Phillips, local composer/musician Pete Moser, Amazonian original songs from Brazilian musician Gabriel Silveira, Brazilian sounds from DJ Naomi Carole, Brazilian food lovingly prepared by Tiliana Bezerra of Manchester based Brazilian caterers Tilisalgados.
Please follow Halton Mill on facebook, on twitter and on instagram – and our new ‘DomBrunoAmazon’ account on Instagram for the latest posts to share. And ‘like’ and follow the new ‘For Dom, Bruno and the Amazon’ Facebook page here.
See us in the Guardian at the end of October ,
On the Morecambe Bay podcast.
In the Lancaster Guardian
Thanks to:
Mandy Blackwell Recruitment, Lancaster and Lakes Jewish Community, Moonloft, Signs Express Lancaster, Amari Plastics (Manchester), Metamark (Lancaster), Hannah Frank Art (www.hannahfrank.org.uk), Complete Homeopathy (Dawnkeyse.co.uk), Trybooking (trybooking.co.uk), Janet Robinson,Sarah Livingstone, Lune Valley Voices, Lancaster and Lakes Jewish Community, Mine Tech Services (minetechservices.com), Green Elephant Cooperative (haltonmill.org.uk) , National Union of Journalists, and two anonymous donors.
Watch, below, a video of Fiona Frank speaking at the Continuing Learning Group, Lancaster University, in October 2022, about the ‘backstory’ to this exhibition and set of events (1 hr)
If we don’t have what you want currently available, we’ll try to work some magic and find space for you, or put you on our waiting list.
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