We are delighted to welcome Davi Kopenawa Yanomami to CULTURESCAPES 2021 Amazonia and to Switzerland, together with our partners at Schauspielhaus Zürich and Fotomuseum Winterthur.
Davi, a shaman and leader of the Yanomami, has fought for Indigenous rights in Brazil for decades. The Amazon, home to about 35,000 Yanomami and with an area of over 96,000 square kilometers more than twice the size of Switzerland is threatened, among other things, by illegal gold mining and forest clearing tolerated by the government.
Davi’s courage and tenacity are reflected in his Yanomami nickname, ‘Kopenawa’, or ‚hornet’. has led the long-running international campaign to secure Yanomami land rights, for which he gained recognition in Brazil and around the world. In 2019, Davi Kopenawa and the Hutukara Associação Yanomami, which he co-founded, received the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Prize.
On 23 October, Davi will be present for a guided tour of the exhibition "The Yanomami Struggle" at Fotomuseum Winterthur, as well as for a talk with curator Thyago Nogueira. Davi has worked closely with Claudia Andujar for decades, whose photographs are shown in the exhibition. The Hutukara Associação Yanomami was involved in the conception of the exhibition.
On October 30, Davi will be at Schauspielhaus Zürich for a reception and a talk with director Christiane Jatahy, whose play "Before the Sky Falls" is based on Kopenawa's work "The Falling Sky" in addition to Shakespeare's "Macbeth."
And on November 5, he will be participating in the master symposium "Seeing into the Heart of Things" at the Institute Art, Gender, Nature HGK FHNW. Later, at 7 pm, he will be speaking about the situation of the Yanomami at an event by Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker at Alte Markthalle in Basel.
Photo: ALDEIA WATORIKI, TERRA INDÍGENA YANOMAMI,RORAIMA, BRASIL: Novembro 2019: Primeiro Forum deLideranças Yanomami e Ye'kwana realizado na aldeiaWatoriki entre os dias 20 a 23 de Novembro 2019. (Photo: Victor Moriyama/ISA)
