Spiritcraft: Learning of the Karirí-Xoco

A two-day workshop on song, dance and craft by Tawana Cruz

Background

Planet earth is facing an emergency. Ecosystems are collapsing, large swathes of our planet are becoming uninhabitable due to environmental devastation, and two-thirds of animal populations face extinction.

Within this alarming panorama, and set against a global political trend toward far-right leaderships increasingly impervious to the planetary dilemma, the spirituality and ecological awareness of some indigenous peoples stands out as a powerful form of resistance, struggle, and renewed spirituality. Comprising less than 5% of the world's population, indigenous people protect 80% of global biodiversity.

Event details

This two-day workshop, part of the 2019-20 Sadler Seminar Series “Animist Engagements: Creativity, Ecology and Indigeneity”, opens a space of exchange between Leeds researchers and the Kariri-Xocó indigenous community.

Drawing on ritual practices such as song and dance, community leader Tawana Cruz will conduct a series of practical sessions and will present local craft, to promote in concrete and material ways some of the spiritual wisdoms of his community.

Spirituality is to be celebrated not as a philosophical or religious concept, but as a craft, as a concrete and material practice of the everyday, and as a mindset that pervades home, forest, school.

We encourage the Leeds community to attend in a warm and open-hearted way, and to leave disciplinary and identitary lines behind in order to explore knowledge sharing as a generous and reciprocal practice that surrenders to a common good.

This event is open to everyone, but places are limited. To register, please contactso if you are interested, please contact Dominic O’Key.