Join us for a lunchtime event with Yanomami scholar Davi Kopenawa, author of the book “A falling sky” (2013) and winner of last year’s Right Livelihoods Award.

Very rarely do members of the part of humankind Jean Malaurie calls ‘les peuples racine’ (literally, ‘groups who have put roots down,’ that is, autochthonous peoples) have the opportunity to converse with literary critiques, political scientists, or particle physicists. Could a Yanomami creation myth inform the early universe cosmology of modern science? Would knowledge of supernovae and dark matter affect indigenous understandings of the cosmos? What could British diplomacy gain from shamanic diplomacy, and how could a shaman from the Amazon convince a western diplomat that ‘somos territorio’ (‘we are territory’)? At a time when the urgent moral claims of distinct and distant others are on the increase, what role could rooted cosmopolitanism play? And what is the significance of roots in a world where the rights of other-than-humans are being voiced? Can native Amazonian ontologies help with literary translations in an era defined by the climate emergency? Under what conditions could universal and particular criteria of beauty and perfection inform one another?

The Round Table takes inspiration from Davi Kopenawa’s co-authored “The Falling Sky” to debate projects of ‘enlightened localisms’ that call for new ways of thinking about ecology and world civilization. Participants are invited to address the question: How do difference and equality make us more human? — or any other question they feel inspired to address on the topic of plurality and diversity in the face of accelerated climate change.

Refreshments will be provided following the event. The venue is accessible for wheelchair users.