'We Are One: a celebration of tribal peoples' published this autumn

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Unique collection of Indigenous wisdom, stunning photos and writing from international authors, poets, journalists and others

All photographs, articles and extracts have been donated in recognition of Survival International’s 40th Anniversary. All royalties go to Survival.

We Are One is a unique collection of statements from the world’s tribal peoples, from the Yanomami of Brazil to the Penan of Malaysia and the Innu of Canada, which is supported by powerful essays and photographs from international authors, campaigners, politicians, philosophers, poets, artists, journalists, academics, anthropologists, environmentalists and photojournalists.

In a unique display of solidarity that celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Survival International, We Are One’s collective voice celebrates the lives, homelands and values of tribal peoples and explores the relevance of their beliefs and wisdom to the present time. It also highlights the oppression tribespeople are experiencing today, promoting the message that tribal peoples are equal to us: just as modern, just as much part of the 21st century and with just as much right to live in peace.

We are One is both a portrait of the beauty and diversity of tribal peoples, and a call to arms that raises many of the contemporary humanitarian and environmental issues inherent in their fight for survival: the growing universal need to place human values over economic ones; climate change and the destruction of rainforests; why western notions of ‘progress’ and ‘development’ should be redefined and why the tribal values of balance, humility and reciprocity are more important than ever in today’s world.

Highlights include:

• Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, known as the ‘Dalai Lama of the Amazon Rainforest’ on consumerism, climate change and the health of the Amazon.

• Laurens van der Post on the euphoria of the Gana Bushmen’s Fire Dance

• Bruce Parry on the grace and generosity of the Penan people of Sarawak, Malaysia

• Gana Bushman Roy Sesana on hunting and tracking in the Kalahari Desert

• Richard Gere on the persecution of the Buddhist Chakma peoples of Bangladesh, and why the world needs to fight tribal repression

• Jane Goodall on the mystery of Africa’s rainforests and the fate of the ‘Pygmy’ peoples

• Piers Vitebsky on the loyalty of Siberian herders to their reindeer

• Damien Hirst on the mystery of Aboriginal art

• Wade Davis on respect for cultural diversity and why the timeless wisdom of tribal peoples is deeply relevant to the world today

• Joanna Lumley on the destruction of the sacred mountain of the Dongria Kondh people in India

• Noam Chomsky on the ‘discovery’ of America

• Claude Levi-Strauss on the philosophy of Shamans
  We are One includes previously unpublished contributions from Richard Gere, Zac
  Goldsmith, Colin Firth, Bruce Parry, Jane Goodall, Joanna Lumley, Damien Hirst, Satish Kumar, Tony Juniper, Jonathan Porritt, Vandana Shiva, Sydney Possuelo, Carlo Petrini, Wade Davis, Arundhati Roy, A.C. Grayling, Robin Hanbury-Tenison and many others.

The foreword is written by Davi Yanomami Kopenawa, and the introduction by Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International.

Literary extracts include: Laurens van der Post, Peter Matthiessen, Colin Thubron

Contributing photojournalists include: Sebastiao Salgado, Kate Eshelby, Mike Goldwater, Steve McCurry, Mirella Ricciardi, Brent Stirton and Carol Beckwith.

We are one is edited by Joanna Eede

Publication date: 16 October 2009
Price: £30.00 Hardback

ENDS

About the Editor: Joanna Eede writes, edits and develops ecological media projects and books, and has a particular interest in the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Her previous books include Portrait of England (Think Publishing Ltd, 2006). She contributes articles to newspapers and travel publications on subjects ranging from the wild Przewalski horses of the Mongolian steppe, the whales of the Alboran sea, tracking chimpanzees in the Tanzanian rainforests and the sacred sites of tribal peoples.