Davi Kopenawa, a Yanomami shaman, stated during a conversation about the book “A Queda do Céu” (The Sky Fall), at FÓLIO – Óbidos International Literary Festival, that the United States is "spoiling" the lands and rivers of the Amazon and harming his people with the aim of "stealing gold, diamonds, and other precious stones". Sitting on the stage floor, Kopenawa confessed to living with "much anger and revolt" at attempts to deceive him and his people, warning that "Americans are very dangerous for all of us".
The shaman recounted suffering "a lot" as a child, losing family and the "beauty of the forest", due to the invasion by "men who come from afar" without dialogue with the original peoples. "The fall of beings is coming", he warned, appealing for support: "We are human beings and one people". Kopenawa criticized widespread consumerism, contrasting it with the essential needs of the "original people" – an axe, a knife, and a pot – without a "sense of possession or obsession with perpetuity". "The millionaires, the capitalists, who like money, rule us all, in Europe, in Brazil. They want to take all the 'materipas' (merchandise) from the land. We don't. We cry for what he took", he stated.
Although a believer in God, Kopenawa was critical of the Church, stating that the Yanomami fight for the "great soul of the Brazilian Amazon forest", caring for the "land that cares for us". "The forest is alive. It will only die if the white people insist on destroying it", he warned, describing a bleak future with disappearing rivers and soil destruction. These words were written in the preface of the book "A Queda do Céu", authored by him and Bruce Albert.
Kopenawa also commented on the role of anthropologists, who "capture the wisdom of the original people" to "become famous and write books", considering it "merchandise". However, he emphasized that the book "A Queda do Céu" is different, intended for teachers and students to "learn the right path: the knowledge of how nature was born". "It is a message for the children who do not learn from parents who are making mistakes", he said.
The shaman expressed a desire to create a children's book about plants and trees, emphasizing the need for new generations to "take care to keep the forest alive". "We have to write about hunger. It's not just the water and the fish that will die. We will too. We have to talk about defending our planet", he stressed, recalling that "Brazil is the center of the world, where the forest was born" and that "the whole world is with the original people, to preserve and guard our mother earth".
At the end of the session, the audience placed small pieces of paper with words of solidarity in cups, such as "live the dream of the land, nature, union, soul, care for others, care for our common good, empathy, humility, knowledge, sharing, respect, joy, act, stop, divest, and Lula". The messages were then scattered on the ground near the Igreja de Santa Maria, in solidarity with the Yanomami indigenous people and in defense of the Amazon rainforest.
