One morning in July, after Brazilian indigenous philosopher, writer and environmentalist Ailton Krenak (68) delivers a speech at a major Pan-Amazon conference, something extraordinary happens. While students at the university complex on the Amazon River eat their lunch and enjoy the view, the branches of a tree above them begin to shake. They look up startled. The rustling gets louder. Suddenly they see a huge iguana appear and maneuver itself to the very end of the branches. Then the animal drops in a free fall and plunges into the river. The students watch in amazement as the iguana swims away, its head above the water, along with the current of the water.
Ecological abyss
Ailton Krenak – who will receive a Prince Claus Award on Tuesday for his efforts to protect indigenous culture and nature – could describe this situation as a moment of insight that people are not at the center of everything. Animals and nature also claim their place. And if we don’t change our lifestyle of consumption and making money, they will catch up with us.
In books and lectures, Krenak fiercely criticizes how, since colonial times, nature in Brazil and the rest of the world has been sacrificed to the ‘development’ of the West in particular. While you cannot eat money – according to a native saying – but nature will feed you forever, if you live well with her.
Mankind, says Krenak, faces an ecological and economic abyss of diseases and environmental disasters due to industrialization. But it’s not too late to see and change that, he says. To stop further environmental disasters, we must embrace a new form of dreaming that allows us to regain our place in nature that we have now lost.
In his recent book Ideas to delay the end of the world Krenak describes how the Covid-19 pandemic forced humanity to a temporary standstill. It reminded us that we are vulnerable, and die if they shut off our air for a few minutes. Erasing humanity does not require a complex war system.
Ailton Krenak belongs to the group of Krenak indigenous people who live around the river Rio Doce in the state of Minas Gerais in southwestern Brazil. He is one of the most important contemporary thinkers of Latin America and writers in Brazil, and as an environmental activist and champion of indigenous rights, he fights against further destruction of nature and extermination of the indigenous people.
The area where Krenak comes from has been plagued for centuries, since colonization, by land expropriations and other conflicts between indigenous people and large landowners. Many large mining companies settled in the region for the extraction of gold, minerals and iron ore. In 2015, the area was in the news due to a major natural disaster: a dam of mining company Vale broke, dozens of people died and large mudslides flowed into the Rio Doce. Where the Krenak once numbered about five thousand members, because they were hunted, expelled and massacred, there are now only one hundred and fifty Krenak indigenous people in Brazil.
Endangered
Ailton Krenak also experienced the rushing as a child, he told a packed house at the Federal University of Belém during the Amazon meeting, where members of indigenous organizations, leaders and environmentalists from all Amazon countries talked about the state of the largest tropical rainforest. in the world.
Deforestation is progressing at such a rapid rate that a state of emergency has to be declared, according to the participants. “We, my relatives and ancestors, hid in the forests,” said Krenak, whose participation in the conference was initially canceled because he, like many other indigenous leaders, is under threat. Especially since the arrival of the far-right Bolsonaro government, which advocates opening up the Amazon for economic purposes and pushing back indigenous land, life has become more dangerous for activists: more than 30 leaders and environmentalists were murdered in Brazil last year. . “During my teenage years, I repeatedly fled with my father because our land was taken by landowners and mining companies,” Krenak continues. “When I was seventeen, we settled in the south of Brazil, in Paraná, where I learned to read and write.”
Krenak became a journalist and writer and has become an important representative of the indigenous peoples in Brazil. He became famous when he painted his face black with ritual symbols of mourning on live television during one of the debates about the new 1988 constitution and the position of indigenous people. During the same period, he supported environmentalist and former rubber tapper Chico Mendes’ struggle against the construction of roads and large fazendas in the Amazon. In 1988 Mendes was murdered for his activism. Ailton Krenak co-founded several indigenous rights organizations such as the União dos Povos Indígenas (Union of Indigenous Peoples) and the Alliance of Jungle Peoples.
In his book, Krenak talks about the Rio Doce. “We call it ‘Watu’, Grandfather. We see the river as a person, not a resource like western economists.”
And as a child, Krenak learned that the mountains also have a character, and that you can ‘read’ mountains. “In the village where I grew up, people look up at the mountain every morning to see if it’s going to be a good day or if it’s better to stay indoors. Sometimes the mountain seems moody, then you better stay indoors. But sometimes the mountain wakes up in all its glory and looks beautifully radiant – with white clouds around the peaks. Then we know it’s going to be a good day.”
Krenak receives the Prince Claus Award at a critical moment. The climate crisis is becoming increasingly apparent due to drought and flooding. The native wisdom of his books seems further from us than ever.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of September 6, 2022