Learning to walk lightly through the world: Lessons from Amazonian Indigenous praxis

Patrick Elf, James Ferreira Moura Junior and Amanda Kumaruara
Journal of Tropical Futures: Sustainable Business, Governance & Development, Vol 2(2) | Sept 2025

Abstract

In an attempt to break with both the hegemonic and cooptive nature of modernity, we set out to provide a provocative reflection on the teaching of indigenous peoples. The message of this conceptual contribution is simple: To have a future, we need to quickly learn, but also unlearn. The ‘we’ here refers first and foremost to polluter elites in the so-called Global North as well as those in the Global South who have greater access to resources and emit more carbon. The process will need to entail, learning from and with those whose lives are more aligned with the more-than-human world; and unlearn behaviours and practices that brought us to where we are: A situation where we experience the unprecedented loss of species, extractive practices depleting the natural environment, a societal meaning crisis despite being hyper-connected and yet disconnected simultaneously. What seems necessary is no less than a rapid decolonisation of harmful, unsustainable thinking and a fundamental breaking of our unsustainable lifestyles and the behaviours and practices underpinning them to move towards a caring, resonant and sustainable way of being.

Further Reading