Ailton Krenak, 71, a writer, philosopher and internationally recognized leader of Brazil’s Indigenous movement, belongs to the 500-member Krenak Indigenous community in southeastern Brazil, a people impacted by illegal mining and logging. In 1970, when Krenak was 17, his family moved from Minas Gerais state, where most of the Krenak people live, to faraway Paraná state. He learned to read and write Portuguese, worked as a journalist, then took up Indigenous-rights advocacy. In 1987, he gained national attention by appearing before Brazil’s National Constituent Assembly, his face painted black in mourning, to protest violations of Indigenous rights. As a civil-society participant in the assembly, he helped draft Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, which recognizes Indigenous people’s rights. In 1988 and 1989, respectively, he cofounded the Union of Indigenous Peoples and the Alliance of Forest-Dwelling Peoples, two influential Indigenous-rights groups. EcoAméricas correspondent Michael Kepp recently interviewed Krenak by e-mail at his home in a Krenak territorial reserve in southeastern Minas Gerais state.
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