Davi Kopenawa Yanomami

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, name also written Davi Kobenawä Yanomamö (born Toototobi, Brazil, circa 1970) is a shaman and Portugese-speaking spokesperson of the Yanomami índios. He came to international prominence for this advocacy regarding tribal issues and Amazon Rainforest conservation. "Of all Yanomami who have emerged as public figures, probably the most important is Davi Kopenawa Yanomami." ^[1][2]

Davi Kopenawa was born near the Rio Toototobi, a tributary of the upper Rio Demini in the Yanomami territory of Kopenawa near the border of Venezuela. He learned Portuguese from a Christian mission run by New Tribes Mission, an American evangelical organization specializing in the proselytization of isolated peoples. The acquisition of Portuguese language proficiency, rare among the Yanomami, enabled Davi Kopenawa to interact with Brazil's Lusophone majority both directly and through the mass media.^{[1][3] [4][5]}

In his own words translated from Portuguese:

I know that the authorities and many people came here because the planet is sick and they are trying to find out how to cure it. The people who come from many places, from the other side of the big lake, all come here to learn about how we live. I want to speak giving the message from Omai. Omai is the creator of the Yanomami who also has created all the shaboris that are the shamans. The shaboris are the ones that have the knowledge, and they sent two of us to deliver their message. The message is to stop destruction, to stop taking out minerals from under the ground, to stop taking out the steel with which all the metal utensils are made, and to stop building roads. We feel that a lot of riches have already been taken out of the indigenous lands, and a lot of these riches are getting old and useless, and it would be much better if the Brazilian government would give these riches to the poor in Brazil. Our work is to protect nature, the wind, the mountains, the forest, the animals, and this is what we want to teach you people.^[6]

Davi Kopenawa is the son-in-law of another traditional tribal leader with whom he apprenticed to be a shaman. His wife lost much of her family to measles and other diseases brought to the area in the 1970s by road construction crews and garimpeiros (small-time gold miners). Davi Kopenawa has mentioned this as part of his personal motivation to speak out on his people's behalf. ^[1]

After some months of staying on our territory, they started to transmit malaria to us. That means that the garimpeiros were already sick. Mosquitos bit the garimpeiros and then bit us. That is how we got the disease. The garimpeiros also brought in other diseases. There are complications of pneumonia, sometimes associated with malaria; tuberculosis; skin diseases that often are associated with other diseases, and, especially in children, can be fatal; there was an epidemic of yellow fever in the area; hepatitis. ^[6]

Around 1990, he began working for the Brazilian government organization Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI) at a post in Demaii in the center of Yanomami territory as an intermediary between the government and indigenous peoples with whom outsiders had little or no contact. He also accompanied health workers to Yanomami villages and has worked closely with organizations such as Comissão Pró-Yanomami (CCPY) and Cultural Survival in the fight for the integrity of Yanomami lands in Brazil. ^[1]

Since an incursion into Yanomami territory begun in 1987 for the harvesting of latex from rubber trees, Davi Kopenawa has worked for the removal of rubber tappers from the area and for the creation of a parkland therein. His action resulted in death threats from the tappers and an award from the United Nations Environment Programme in 1988. ^[1][6][3]

Davi Kopenawa's unique role among his people has been commented on skeptically even by those sympathetic to him and his cause. Anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon wrote regarding Davi Kopenawa:

His non-Yanomamö supporters in Brazil, intelligent and well-intentioned advocates of the Yanomamö cause, are promoting him as a spokesman for his people. Such a role exists largely because our culture must deal with other cultures through their leaders – it is the only way we know how to deal with them. Everything I know about Davi Kobenawä is positive, and I am confident that he is a sincere and honest man. When I read his proclamations, I am moved – but I am also sure that someone from our culture wrote them. They have too much the voice of Rousseau’s idealism and sound very non-Yanomamö. My concern is that he is being put into a difficult position, fraught with consequences for the future of the Yanomamö. For one thing, there is currently no such thing as a pan-Yanomamö awareness, and so he cannot possibly be speaking for the Venezuelan Yanomamö.^[1][7]

While Chagnon's views in this matter were reiterated by investigative journalist Patrick Tierney in his much-defamed book Darkness in El Dorado, others have argued that this assertion was overstated and note that Davi Kopenawa has, at times, spoken out on his own. ^[1][3][4]

[edit] External links

• AAA interview with Davi Kopenawa
• An Open Letter to All Peoples of the Earth
• Representatives from the Yanomami People demand the removal of miners from their lands

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} [1] "Engagement of anthropologists in public dialogue with members of study communities", University of Arizona
2. ^ His name seems to mean basically "Davi, a Yanomami from Kopenawa"
3. ^ ^{a b c} [2] Cultural Survival, "Davi Kopenawa Yanomami"
4. ^ ^{a b} [3] Report of the Medical Team of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro on Accusations Contained in Patrick Tierney's Darkness in El Dorado
5. ^ [4] New Tribes Mission
6. ^ ^{a b c} [5]Multinational Monitor, Vol XIII, No. 9, September 1992
7. ^ Yanomamö and Yanomami are synonymous.