Riparian Struggles

Strategies

This is a platform to share planetary strategies and tactics for collectives engaged in riparian struggles across the Near-South. It is a result of a two-year funded design project which connects human and nonhuman riparians in Jakarta, São Paulo and Berlin by making what we call a “self-organised infrastructure”.

Tactics + Recipes

Collaborations

Dear fellow riparians,

We are Salve Saracura, a collective born along the river banks of the hidden Saracura river in Bixiga, downtown São Paulo. We are a horizontal community based organization existing through meetings in different sites across Bixiga's hilly topography, including community associations, bookstores, local museums etc. We fight for the preservation of nature-culture in our territory, with a focus on the riparian communities- mostly black and immigrants- around Saracura river.

Our struggles are situated along Saracura's riparian riversides, where, in the middle of a dense urban fabric, nature emerges through the river springs and the remaining green hillsides which evidence the river basin's geography.

Our main struggle is to protect the spring and hillside areas against new construction and, at the same time, ensure the preservation of cultural heritage, including riparians' cultural practices and their local built environment.

Some of our tactics and rituals used in this struggle include, water testing and springs certification. In this case, the Forestry Code protects springs and river courses, but in urban areas the legal interpretation is in constant dispute, for example, once the river is covered it is not consider a river anymore. But for us it remains so, and its overspilling through floods are the evidence.

Other tactics include neighbourhood parades and demonstrations; artistic interventions; ludic and educational activities with children; debates; presentations; engagment with academic work; and community supervision of archeological sites. In addition, we advocate on behalf of the Saracura for listing the cultural landscape such as the Saracura Popular-Park; protecting Afro-Brazilian heritage-memory e.g. Saracura Vai Vai; promoting site sensitive urban planning and taking legal action against predatory intervention.

We look forward to hearing from you all and learning from your struggles.

Yours,

Salve Saracura

Riparian Struggles

Strategies

Salve Saracura

Floating University

Labtek Apung

Tactics + Recipes

Collaborations