Ancestral Future

Ailton Krenak was born in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and is a leading environmental activist and campaigner for Indigenous rights.

“Ailton Krenak is one of the most original and important Brazilian contemporary thinkers in the fields of environmental crises, and Indigenous knowledge and activism. Throughout his life, he has advocated for a real and effective respect toward Indigenous people, their lives and territories, and against racist, genocidal, and ecocidal politics in general. In his highly distinctive work, Krenak’s objective is to change the views of readers and encourage them to understand the union between Indigenous thoughts, science, and a poetical view of life and the Earth.”Marília Librandi, University of São Paulo and Princeton University“Ailton Krenak has an extraordinary capacity to think outside the box. In Ancestral Future, he uses this capacity to guide us through a critique of most things we in the West take for granted: cities, schools, sanitation, equality, even our idea of future. It is really more a talk than a book: with the fluidity of oral speech, he moves from one nook of our existence to the other, unsettling them, removing the props and stakes that hold them together, and inviting us to a stimulating conversation that makes us see things from the point of view of florestania.”Lúcia Sá, University of Manchester “As an indigenous leader in Brazil, Ailton…has a deeply sceptical view of capitalist progress and how it devalues the natural world and the ‘constellations’ of creatures that share it. Too often economic and urban planning work against the landscape, dominating it and subjugating it. Ailton consistently calls readers back to the relationships between things, the importance of land and nature, and the impossibility of setting humanity above it.”Earthbound Report“Lucid and eloquent, the voice of one of the most  prominent indigenous leaders to emerge in the Americas is distinct and always playfully hopeful.”Latin American Review of Books“His message is timely. Governments are busy working on technological solutions to the many crises assailing the world, but they have also agreed to draw more ambitious policies to protect and restore nature. Increasingly, Indigenous people are part of the conversation.”New York Times

• Introduction – Alex Brostoff and Jamille Pinheiro DiasGreetings to the riversCartographies for after the endCities, pandemics and other gadgetsAffective alliancesThe heart in the rhythm of the EarthAn Oraliture of Encounter – Rita CarelliEditorial NoteNotes