How do the spaces we share as communities, shape us as individuals? What might a retired shepherd from Himachal Pradesh in India, an entrepreneur from Milwaukee, USA and a tribesman from the Brazilian Amazon have in common? During 2021, Xynteo’s The Performance Theatre collaborated with filmmakers to bring you stories of three unique community leaders from across the globe.
Defending the forest against the city
In the second of three episodes that look at how our changing world and climate effects individuals and communities in the margins of our society, we taken to the rain forests of Xingu Indigenous land in Brazil, by farmer, sculptor and research scholar Yamalui Kuikaro Mehinaku.
Working the land to support his community, Yamalui lives in the village Aldeia Ipatse. Lying between two rivers, his community work their fields with seasons, collecting fruits and medicinal plants from the forest. Contact with “the western world” has brought new objects into their lives such as soap, clothes, fishhooks, and motorcycles. But the encroaching cities also pose a challenge to their way of life. Agribusiness and soy plantations threaten to replace the cassava fields they have grown for generations. Yamalui hopes that growing education of indigenous peoples will empower future generations with the skills and knowledge they need to defend their land.
Learn more about Yamalui’s story in episode two of the ‘TPT Weather Reports’ – three short documentaries produced by Xynteo’s the Performance Theatre, a community of leaders from business, policy, civil society, and the arts dedicated to reinventing growth – for themselves, their organisations, and the systems of which they are a part.