Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa granted honorary degree

The Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) on Wednesday (Mar. 15) is awarding the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to indigenous leader and shaman Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, in recognition of his efforts to defend the Yanomami territory as well as the Amazon forest and its diversity.

The nomination is the first conferred by the institution, and garnered the signatures of 472 of its professors, specialists, and students.

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“The granting of the title symbolizes our university’s ongoing search for dialogue and the decolonization of knowledge. Our efforts have included the creation of the Kaapora Chair of Traditional and Non-Hegemonic Knowledge in 2016, as well as the Chair of Sustainability and Visions of the Future in 2020, with a focus on the social and environmental arena. These professorships proposed the conferral of the title, along with members of the Xingu Project, working in community initiatives with indigenous peoples since the 60s,” a statement from Unifesp reads.

Recognition

Davi Kopenawa is estimated to have been born around 1956, in the Yanomami village of Marakana, high up on the Toototobi River, a few kilometers from the border between the northern state of Roraima and Venezuela. He left his village as a teenager to work as an interpreter for Brazil’s national indigenous authority Funai. His story is recounted in the film Xapiri, launched 11 years ago.

By looking into Davi Kopenawa’s background we learn that, in addition to ceremonies bringing together various shamanic leaders, he has played a key role in mustering support and allies for the defense of the Yanomami territory in both Amazonas and Roraima states. This is how he became acquainted with French anthropologist Bruce Albert, with whom he produced the feature and also wrote The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman.

His constant readiness for battle is praised by José Mário Pereira Goes, head of the Yanonami Association of the Cauaburis River and its Tributaries (Ayrca). “When he was young, he already considered being a leader and a defender of the territory. He’s a person who thinks of everyone, not to mention the land, the forest, the rivers, and the streams,” Goes noted.

Davi Kopenawa has also been active in culture and art. He was one of the creators of the opera Amazonas: Music Theatre in Three Parts, performed in Munich and São Paulo in 2010. He also produced the film Urihi haromatima pë: curadores da floresta (“Urihi haromatima pë: curators of the forest”) with Morzaniel Ɨramari Yanomami. In 2017, he received the Itaú Cultural Award, among other accolades, like the National Order of Merit, from the Ministry of Culture, as well as being accepted into the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.