In response to the damage caused by centuries of colonial ravaging and the current ecological
political and social crises the leading Indigenous thinker and activist Ailton Krenak warns
against the power of corporate capitalism and its destructive impact. Capitalism encroaches on
every corner of the planet and orients us toward a future of promised progress achievement and
growth but this future doesn't exist - we just imagine it. This orientation to the future also
blinds us to what exists around us to the plants and animals with which we share the Earth and
to the rivers that flow through our lands. Rivers are not just resources to be exploited by us
or channels to carry away our waste they are beings that connect us with our past. If there is
a future to imagine it is ancestral since it is already present in the here and now and in
that which exists around us in the rivers and mountains and trees that are our kin. In a
spoken language that has the mark of ancestral oral wisdom Krenak offers a new perspective
that challenges and disrupts some of the assumptions that underpin Western attitudes and
mentalities. His work will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the climate crisis
and the worsening plight of our planet.
