June 5 is World Environment Day and, since 2022, marks the moment of the murders of indigenist Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips, victims of an ambush, killed from behind by a gang of illegal fishermen in the Javari Valley. For their families and friends, for indigenous peoples and for environmental defenders, it will forever be a day of sadness, of remembering the brutal loss of two men who dedicated their lives to human rights and the protection of the Amazon. 

For Opi - the Observatory for the Human Rights of Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples, - the organisation founded by Bruno Pereira, it will also be a day to remember his legacy and continue his work. On this first anniversary of Bruno's death, we assert the presence of his spirit among us by launching the organisation's new website and a new visual identity. The new website provides detailed information about Opi, about Brazil’s isolated indigenous peoples, the policies to protect these groups, and the history of genocide that marks the Brazilian state's relationship with indigenous peoples.

The site also explains the meanings of the word Opi. Opi is a verb in the Zo'é language which, in the third person singular, can literally be translated as "to sting". Tapijei opi, "the ant tapijei stings". For the Zo'é, the sting of the tapijei ants has a specific power to awaken the body in some people. For one of the Zo'é's neighbouring indigenous peoples, the Wayana, Opi means medicine or medicinal plant, in reference to the wealth of knowledge about forest plants of this Carib-speaking people who inhabit the Paru do Oeste or Okomokï river basin. "Insofar as stinging, on the one hand, and healing or harming through medicinal plants, on the other, presuppose the intentionality of the agent, in the same way the pointy traps placed by the isolated indigenous people of the Massaco Indigenous Land on the paths of invaders can be seen as a sting or even as an attack aimed at healing the land," explains the website.

At the same time, Opi could be the acronym for Observatory of Isolated Indigenous Peoples. "So Opi's action, swaying between the sting and the remedy, the attack and the cure, follows the same movement as the thought-action process of the Amerindian peoples, between celebration and war. The pain of the sting and even of death generates the vital force that ends inaction and opens the hunter's pupils, ears and nose. The shaman's medicine can cure the relative and poison the enemy." 

Based on these elements, the new visual identity renews Opi's logo and is the work of designer and art director Marcelo Vendramel, winner of several design and creativity awards and a branding specialist.

To create Opi's visual identity, Marcelo worked with the ambiguity between the cure and the sting, always with Bruno Pereira's legacy in mind. "A more structured visual language that is coherent with the Observatory's purpose will enhance the perception of a more solid and lively organisation, both for those coming into contact with Opi for the first time and for those who already know it," affirms the designer.

Opi's new website was developed by Studio Cubo, a web agency specialised in developing complex digital platforms and experienced in providing services to non-governmental organisations and associations. The technical manager is André Mota, an advertising executive with a postgraduate qualification in strategic communication planning. For the launch, audiovisual production company Beco Cria produced an animation. Beco Cria is based in a favela in the outskirts of São Paulo and educates young people in audiovisual and includes black and underprivileged people in every stage to meet market demands. 

The animation was created by Matheus Ferreira and designer Marcelo Vendramel. The 42-second video features a sample created by musician André Abujamra from the Kanamari Marinawa Kinadih chant, which went viral on the internet at the time of the murders. The tribute introduces Opi and its visual identity and shows Bruno Pereira's presence to the world. As long as we're here, we'll carry on his legacy.