The Yanomami, an indigenous group from northern Brazil, are under threat. And have been for decades. The Amazon region, home to about 35,000 Yanomami, one of the most important reservoirs of genetic diversity on the planet and with an area of over 96,000 square kilometres twice the size of Switzerland, is being poisoned by illegal gold mining and cleared by President Bolsonaro's henchmen.
Davi Kopenawa of the Yanomami has been actively campaigning with the Brazilian government for the legal protection of Yanomami land since the 1980s. As a result of his campaigning, the area was officially acknowledged shortly before the first UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. A success that is again acutely threatened by the policies of the current Brazilian government.
In 2004, Kopenawa founded the Hutukara Yanomami Association. "Hutukara" means "the part of the sky from which the earth was born" in the Yanomami language. The organisation gives voice to the Yanomami people on both a national and international level. In 2019, Davi Kopenawa and the Hutukara Yanomami Association received the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Prize, for this work. Kopenawa also wrote the book The Falling Sky, in which he provides insights into the cosmology and struggle of the Yanomami and which, along with Macbeth, is the basis for the production Before the Sky Falls.
This October, Davi Kopenawa will continue his political campaigning work in Switzerland, together with his son Dário, and will give a speech in the foyer of the Pfauen before a performance of Before the Sky Falls on 30 October 2021. Immediately afterwards, there will be an artist talk with Christiane Jatahy, director of Before the Sky Falls, Davi Kopenawa and his son Dário.
Procedure
5.00 p.m. - Admission and welcome
5.30 p.m. - Speech by Davi Kopenawa
6.00 p.m. - Conversation between Christiane Jatahy, Davi Kopenawa and Dário Kopenawa
6.45 pm - Q & A
8.00 p.m. – Performance of Before the Sky Falls