Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman (pt 1)

Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman (first half)

As a Land and Food Systems student, it was so interesting to read a text that focused on Latin American indigeneity within the global context of climate change. One of my favorite words from this first half was within the first couple pages after the foreword, when Albert said that this book is a combination of a story, autoethnography, and cosmoecological manifesto; I liked how Kopenawa/Albert always connected the history and foundations of the Yanomami community in Brazil with his powerful hook in the foreword with the falling sky, and that the destruction of the Amazon rain forst will lead to ecological collapse. The primary theme/message of this book (in my opinion) is something that has been the key takeaway of all of my courses/experiences/work surrounding food justice, food sovereignty, food security, and food literacy, which is that we must use indigenous ways of knowing and teachings to learn how to live better. One way that this was emphasized throughout the book that I thought was fascinating was when Kopenawa was talking about Yanomami foundations of beings, like how Omama created the people and the white people were far away from the forest, the Xapiri listen to the trees, and that Omama instructed the Yanomami to live in the forest, eat from it, and hold feasts, all of which are the opposite that the white people are doing in regards to the forest. This combined with the heavy emphasis on white people being the outsiders, of the pattern of the colonial matrix where white people approach indigenous communities with "let's be friends" to immediately exploit them, and the emphasis that it is their "outsiderness" that killed their community, such as through the harmonicas spreading illness with lacerated chests to cause to xawara epidemic, truly communicated that to preserve the Yanomami environment we must prioritize and center on Yanomami knowledge and absolutely not take into consideration those of the white outsiders.

In relation to how this book was written and how the relationship between editor/author is portrayed, I personally thought that Albert did a good job communicating Kopenawa's indigeneity solely when Kopenawa is talking in first person about his stories and the community, and not overly emphasizing it during the foreword or extra content to make the book more marketable. The only part that made me question that was when he said right at the beginning that Kopenawa continues to live in simplicity among people in his traditional home, but then I found that this pattern didn't really repeat much elsewhere! One element too that I really liked was the mini orthography lesson of how to pronounce Yanomami words and expressions; because the target audience of the book is white people/outsiders, I thought this lesson before diving into the content was an effective way of kind of holding the reader accountable for how they read the book and what they take away from it.

Comments

  1. Anonymous27 March 2024 at 14:33

    I agree that Kopenawa's was really pushing for the importance of indigenous knowledge and teachings as a key takeaway. He repeatedly talks about how things were better for his people before white people came and they were able to live their traditional way. And when you look at the evidence things were better in many ways because people weren't dying of disease and their practices were sustainable so the land was not dying. The colonial land use is focused on money which has led to land degradation and damage while the indigenous model is sustainable and focus on stewardship.

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  2. Anthony Lockley29 March 2024 at 12:21

    I found that the most interesting part of this work, as unlike Guaman Poma, there is no desire to exchange knowledge. Kopinawa doesn't show an interest in white people's knowledge, he and his ancestors have lived well for their entire histroy, and this nascent colonial contact only seeks to threaten that. Its a sort of shut up and listen text, and i kinda liked that.

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