Born in 1953 on the banks of the Rio Doce in the state of Minas Gerais, Ailton Krenak was separated from his people and land at the age of 9. Educated in traditional Brazilian society, he saw fellow indigenous people suffer the same fate. From these experiences are born his reflections.
Not only is he a leader, but a mentor to the younger generations. Great source of inspiration for other idigenous people, for the progress he achieved on indigenous and environmental rights, and the power of his voice.
“ Our era has specialized in creating lack; of meaning for life in society, of meaning for the experience of life itself. This creates a great intolerance for anyone who is still able to experience the pleasure of being alive, of dancing, of singing. And there are lots of little constellations of people scattered around the world dancing, singing, making it rain. The kind of zombie humanity that we are called to integrate does not tolerate so much pleasure, so much enjoyment of life. So the only way they can get us to abandon our own dreams is to preach the end of the world. My provocation about ideas for delaying the end of the world suggests exactly this: let us develop our strength to be able to tell one more story, another story. If we can do that, then we will postpone the end of the world" — Ideas to Postpone the End of the World - Ailton Krenak
Explore the Selvagem, project, led by Anna Dantes in collaboration with Ailton Krenak:
Bringing into dialogue traditional forest knowledge, science and arts, Selvagem aims to amplify indigenous voices and their cosmologies. Selvagem creates a space for a rich variety of communication forms while inspiring reflection about human actions and interactions with all living beings on the planet, the cosmos and spirituality.
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