The Falling Sky and The Yanomami Struggle

Davi Kopenawa - Photo Edouard Caupeil
Date & Time Jan 31 2023 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Speaker(s)
Davi Kopenawa, Yanomami Shaman and President of the Hutukara Associação Yanomami, and author of The Falling Sky
Audience Open to the Public

The Falling Sky book coverThe world-renowned shaman and Indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa will visit Princeton on Tuesday, January 31. He will speak at Chancellor Green’s Rotunda at 4:30 pm. Kopenawa is the author of the classic The Falling Sky and is at the forefront of struggles to guarantee Indigenous rights and to safeguard the Amazon rainforest.

Kopenawa will be accompanied by the acclaimed photographer Cláudia Andujar, the anthropologists Bruce Albert and Ana Maria Machado, and the Indigenous artists and activists Ehuana Yaira, Morzaniel Ɨramari, Joseca Mokahesi, and Dario Yanomami.

On February 3, the group will participate in the North American debut of The Yanomami Struggle, an exhibition at The Shed in New York dedicated to the collaboration and friendship between Andujar and the Yanomami people. The exhibition includes more than 80 drawings and paintings by Yanomami artists. Visitors will also discover new video works by contemporary Yanomami filmmakers. These works will appear alongside more than 200 photographs by Claudia Andujar that trace the artist’s encounters with the Yanomami and continue to raise visibility for their struggle to protect their land, people, and culture.

The Yanomami Struggle is organized by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and Instituto Moreira Salles in partnership with the Brazilian NGOs Hutukara Associação Yanomami and Instituto Socioambiental.

Throughout the Spring, the Brazil LAB and the Department of Anthropology will help to organize guided tours for student groups to The Yanomami Struggle exhibition at The Shed in New York.

The event at Princeton, The Falling Sky and The Yanomami Struggle, is being organized by the Brazil LAB and the Department of Anthropology in conjunction with multiple partners on campus.

Co-sponsors: Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University Art Museum, Lewis Center for the Arts, Pace Center for Civic Engagement, High Meadows Environmental Institute, University Center for Human Values, Humanities Council, Program in Latin American Studies, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.

Not on campus? Watch the livestream here.