Pedagogy of the Rainforest: An Indigenous Yanomami Perspective

A presentation from 2022–2023 Radcliffe fellow Emil' Keme

"Ancestral principles held by Indigenous peoples represent the grounding force against environmental injustices and destruction in Abiayala (The Americas). By focusing on The Falling Sky (2013), a testimonial and biographical account by Indigenous Yanomami elder, Davi Kopenawa, I show the Yanomami’s relationship to the rainforest and the 'more than human' world (Abram 2013) in the Amazonian forests in the northeast region of present-day Brazil and Venezuela. Indigenous peoples and their worldview demonstrate to humanity a different way of living and caring for the Earth, one that understands the Earth and all their expressions as a living being and that humanity is not separate from nature."

Emil’ Keme, a.k.a. Emilio del Valle Escalante, is an Indigenous K’iche’ Maya scholar and activist and a professor in the Department of English at Emory University. He is a member of the Maya anti-colonial, binational collective Ix’balamquej Junajpu Wunaq’.

Radcliffe Fellow Emil’ Keme Discusses Indigenous Perspectives on Environmentalism at Virtual Event (Harvard Crimson, 10/13/22)

Event Video