Halton Mill will be host to the opening of a new exhibition, “For Dom, Bruno and the Amazon” next week, Wednesday 23rd July 2025, the Opening Night offering talks and music to remember those who have died trying to protect an ecosystem vital to the planet.
“For Dom, Bruno and the Amazon” is a powerful new exhibition to honour those who have lost their lives trying to save the Amazon – some of them murdered. The exhibition opens at 6.30pm next Wednesday, offering chance to see the exhibition, enjoy some refreshments, hear about current research in the Amazon, and enjoy some Afro-Brazilian dancing.
British environmental journalist Dom Phillips, brother of Lancaster musician Sian Phillips, and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, were murdered in June 2022 in Brazilian Amazonia, by men involved in illegal fishing. This hardhitting, information-rich exhibition, with striking photographs throughout its fifteen panels, was first put together in November 2022 to honour Dom and Bruno and the many others who have lost their lives protecting the Amazon.
It’s now been updated this year to reflect political changes in Brazil, to accompany the launch of Dom’s book How to Save the Amazon, a journalist’s deadly quest for justice which has been completed by a team of journalists and environmentalists, and the creation of the Dom Phillips Institute by his widow, Alessandra Sampaio, to take forward Dom’s legacy of providing a voice for rainforest defenders.
The exhibition exposes the dangers that the rainforest and its inhabitants are facing from deforestation, and from illegal mining and fishing. It also showcases some hopeful solutions and reminds us that there are many actions that we ourselves in the global North can take to help to protect the Amazon.
At the free opening night on Wednesday 23rd July, there’s the opportunity to hear from two visiting speakers working on Brazilian issues. Romina Celona is a doctoral student in anthropology at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro and visiting scholar in Paris, and will speak on “Indigenous peoples in Brazil: defending territories and traditions”; and Cassio Alencar Nunes, a Brazilian ecologist at the Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) and part of the Sustainable Amazon Network (RAS) which applies scientific evidence to strengthen sustainability, will speak about his work, “Researching the ecological consequences of human activities in Amazonian forests”
The evening will finish with Afro-Brazilian dancing – Louise Gibbons from Northbound Dance will be teaching us all some tropical moves!
The event is free to help with catering, please book for the opening night at trybooking.co.uk
“Musical Journey” Crowdfunder ends soon
The opening night of the “For Dom, Bruno and the Amazon” exhibition is also the closing night of the crowdfunder for “Musical Journeys ’25: the ‘Fiona’s Travels’ edition“, an international online cabaret planned to take place on 4th October with internationally known performers from Brazil and Canada who Lancaster musician Fiona Frank met on her travels in the Americas last year.
Money raised by the crowdfunder will cover the costs of the performers and at least a quarter of all funds raised will go to the Dom Phillips Institute and to two musical projects within the Amazon which Fiona also came across on her journey – one taking musical instruments to remote Indigenous villages in Amazonas state; and another, a rap collective in Altamira in the heart of the Amazon.
The crowdfunder has to meet its target by 24th July in order for the concert to go ahead and for the Amazonian causes to receive their money. For more information and to get your advance tickets or to donate, go to crowdfunder.co.uk/p/musicaljourneys25. Pledges start at £5.00.
“For Dom, Bruno and the Amazon” – Exhibition at Halton Mill, Mill Lane, Halton LA2 6ND Wednesday 23rd July to Tuesday 22nd September – opening night Weds 23 July 6.30 pm | Free, all welcome. To help with catering, please book for the opening night at trybooking.co.uk/FBKT