Indigenous thinker and leader Ailton Krenak exposes the destructive tendencies of our 'civilization' rampant consumerism, environmental devastation and a narrow and restricted understanding of humanity's place on this Earth. For many centuries, Brazil's Indigenous peoples have bravely faced threats of total annihilation and, in extremely adverse conditions, have reinvented their lives and communities. At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the rest of the world to reconsider its lifestyle, Ailton Krenak's clear and urgent thinking emerges with newfound impact and offers a vital perspective on the enormous challenges we face today: the ravages of the pandemic and the devastation caused by global warming, to name just two. Krenak questions the value of going back to normal when 'normal' is a vision of humanity divorced from nature, actively destroying the planet and digging deep trenches of inequality between peoples and societies. The 'civilized' world insists on giving life a purpose but life is not 'useful' and 'civilization' is not destiny. We must learn to embrace the joy of living life to its fullest, and inhabit the stillness that comes with not always being useful. In the wake of the pandemic, we have an opportunity to create deep and meaningful change in the way we live: this, more than ever, is a time to listen to voices that are one with the body of the Earth.

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 destructive powers of corporate capitalism and its irreversible impacts. Ancestral Future draws attention to how we are constantly imagining some moment in the past or thinking about what is yet to come rather than living with what subsists around us. Unable to withstand the present, we escape into future imaginings and lose track of our here and now. If there is another kind of future to imagine, then Krenak shows how that future is ancestral, since it was already here, pulsing with the possibilities of connecting with the Earth and its constellations of beings and remembering that rivers, mountains and trees are our kin.

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 destructive powers of corporate capitalism and its irreversible impacts. Ancestral Future draws attention to how we are constantly imagining some moment in the past or thinking about what is yet to come rather than living with what subsists around us. Unable to withstand the present, we escape into future imaginings and lose track of our here and now. If there is another kind of future to imagine, then Krenak shows how that future is ancestral, since it was already here, pulsing with the possibilities of connecting with the Earth and its constellations of beings and remembering that rivers, mountains and trees are our kin.

Indigenous thinker and leader Ailton Krenak exposes the destructive tendencies of our 'civilization' rampant consumerism, environmental devastation and a narrow and restricted understanding of humanity's place on this Earth. For many centuries, Brazil's Indigenous peoples have bravely faced threats of total annihilation and, in extremely adverse conditions, have reinvented their lives and communities. At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the rest of the world to reconsider its lifestyle, Ailton Krenak's clear and urgent thinking emerges with newfound impact and offers a vital perspective on the enormous challenges we face today: the ravages of the pandemic and the devastation caused by global warming, to name just two. Krenak questions the value of going back to normal when 'normal' is a vision of humanity divorced from nature, actively destroying the planet and digging deep trenches of inequality between peoples and societies. The 'civilized' world insists on giving life a purpose but life is not 'useful' and 'civilization' is not destiny. We must learn to embrace the joy of living life to its fullest, and inhabit the stillness that comes with not always being useful. In the wake of the pandemic, we have an opportunity to create deep and meaningful change in the way we live: this, more than ever, is a time to listen to voices that are one with the body of the Earth.