Amazonian Plant Medicines and Behaviour Change
Lecture given online at Harvard Divinity School Inaugural Conference on Ecological Spiritualities in April 2022. At this moment of profound ecological and health crisis, there is an urgent call for a fundamental rethinking of our attitudes toward the natural environment. This presentation explores the role of Amazonian plant medicines in promoting indigenous spirituality and how […]
Rethinking the Economy after Coronavirus
Recent responses to the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred reactions to how access to wild animals and their products may spread infectious disease from such animals to humans. This has unleashed an onslaught of debate in the scientific and related policy literature on nature conservation, human and animal rights, and efforts to alleviate global poverty among […]
Indigenous Ontologies and New Becomings
Since COVID-19 started many indigenous elders have died, raising fears that the pandemic may inflict irreparable damage on Indigenous ancestral ontologies. This presentation shows how Amazonian indigenous ontologies could help in changing anthropocentric attitudes and transitioning from the COVID-19 crisis. Global efforts to address crises are often characterized as ‘blueprints’ devoid of political and cultural […]
Pandemics, conservation and human nature relations
In this presentation, we look at the links between pandemics, conservation, and human-nature relations. We start by questioning who is invading whom? The most serious pandemics in recorded history have their causes rooted in unsustainable anthropic intervention on land and biodiversity. With the world on lockdown, rapid social changes have increased the opportunities to re-think […]
Perceiving the Amazon in the Anthropocene
This presentation was given at Oxford University in February 2020International Colloquium on Socio-Environmental Politics.Amazon: Rising Violence and Disturbing Trends. Forests and ways of relating to forests are critical to the planet. In this article, we engage with the debate on the Anthropocene and explore different forms of relationality to forests and Amazonian indigenous symbolism. Drawing […]
Memory Erasure in Terra Brasilis
‘Terra Brasilis | Indigenous Land’ was a presentation given as part of the XVI Circle of Psychoanalysis and Art – ‘Migrants: Where do they come from? Where are they going?’ at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro – PUC-Rio. I talked about the colonial history of indigenous peoples in Brazil, their resistance, their role […]
Jair Messias Bolsonaro: “the tropical Trump”
Jair Messias Bolsonaro, labelled by international social media as “the tropical Trump”, was elected in Brazil with 55% of votes. What does it mean for the world, and why all Brazilian environmentalists are so worried?
The Real Story: Who owns the Amazon?
Are the Amazon fires an ‘international crisis’? Contributors Daniel Nepstad – Earth Innovation Institute Monica De Bolle – Johns Hopkins University Maria Fernanda Gebara – Anthropologist and researcher Also featuring Ricardo Salles – Brazil’s Environment Minister Johan Eliasch – CEO of Head Celia Xacriaba – Articulation of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples Nathalia Passarinho – BBC reporter […]
Affective Ecologies, Indigenous Ontologies and Post-Humanism
This presentation looks at affect theory and indigenous ontologies to illustrate their practical significance in understanding and framing human and other-than-human relations. It argues that affective political ecology can help to ensure that the post-humanism turn is equipped to engage critically with the necessary transformations that are required for transitioning into a post-human politics while […]
Indigenous Blood: Not a Single Drop More
This presentation is about the historic legacy of colonization for Indigenous People in the Amazon. “Not a Single Drop More” was a demonstration organised by different Indigenous People from the Amazon in 2019 in different countries around the world. The presentation was given as part of the event “Amazon Indigenous Emergency”, organized by University College […]
