[1] He became widely known after his protest at the Brazilian Constituent Assembly on September 4, 1987, when he painted his face with black jenipapo[2] dye while delivering a speech against the violation of Indigenous peoples rights.

[11] He was raised in the Doce River valley region of Brazil until he was 17 years-old, a territory of the Krenak people which has been severely impacted by legal and illegal activities of mining, logging and construction companies.

[13] Krenak was the recipient of the 2022 Prince Claus Fund Impact Awards,[14] along with María Medrano, Argentina; Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Cuba; May al-Ibrashy, Egypt; Hassan Darsi, Morocco and Alain Gomis, Senegal.

It comprised three texts: "Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo" ["Ideas to postpone the end of the world"], "Do sonho e da terra" ["Of dreams and the earth"], and "A humanidade que pensamos ser" ["The humanity we think we are"].

According to Krenak, the title of the book constitutes a provocation[16] which occurred to him when he received a call, while doing gardening activities, from the University of Brasília with an invitation to present a lecture on sustainable development.

Upon arriving at the venue, however, Krenak encountered a full auditorium, consisting not only of the Master's students at the Center of Sustainable Development who were supposed to be his main attendees, but also of people from various parts of the university community, drawn by the possibility of hearing his strategies to avert global catastrophe.

This introduction set the stage for his critical assessment of the myth of sustainability,[30] an idea advanced by corporations to justify the assault on and disruption of Indigenous peoples' lands and conceptions of nature.

As part of a larger process initiated with European colonialism, this exploitative logic ends up suppressing and denying the diversity and plurality of life, existence, and ways of being in the world, in a manner that is deeply antagonistic to Indigenous cosmovisions,[34] which see humans and non-humans as mutually constitutive.

In the first chapter of the eponymous book, Krenak presents a philosophical and poetic critique of modern humanity’s detachment from the environment and its role in driving ecological collapse.

Drawing on his experiences as an Indigenous leader and on the worldviews of the Krenak people, he highlights how the pursuit of material progress has eroded the spiritual and cultural connections between humans and nature.

[37] He challenges the anthropocentric assumption that humanity can endlessly exploit the planet without consequences, calling for a radical shift toward sustainability and coexistence through the imagination of futures grounded in balance, community, and reverence for the natural world.

The text presents a reflection on how modern society's fixation on productivity and consumerism has diminished humanity's ability to dream collectively and maintain a meaningful connection with the Earth.

Krenak argues that neglecting this bond means severing an essential part of our humanity, and that revitalizing our capacity to dream is integral to resisting environmental destruction and envisioning alternative futures.

Ultimately, Krenak argues for a rethinking of the notion of humanity that is not based on "a single type of existence", but rather recognizes "nature as an immense multitude of forms, each and every piece of ourselves included, for we, too, are part of the whole: 70 percent water, and a host of other minerals".

"The type of zombie humanity we are invited to be a part of does not tolerate this much pleasure [of small constellations of people who dance, sing and make it rain], so much fruition of life.

'[40] He pleaded for the government of Jair Bolsonaro to be internationally condemned for failing to cut back on mining in Indigenous territories in the Amazon as well as in other places in which 'the ecology plays a regulating role of planetary climate.

[42] In Life is Not Useful, Krenak proposes that the anthropocentrism characteristic of Western thought has led to an artificial and erroneous separation between humanity and nature (or the nature/culture divide, as Nogueira, Pinto and Moreira point out).

Thirdly, dreams can link different temporalities: they can connect the dreamer with their ancestors, or, as in the case of the shaman who confided in Krenak a vision of the devastation of the planet during his youth, they can be premonitory and announce the future.

[48] Furthermore, as Tamara de Oliveira Rodriguez points out, for Krenak dreaming allows the possibility of a shared future where the tradition and the memory of ancestors can live on despite the hurdles and threats of modern life.

[51] Listening can also involve ancestors and connect with ancestral memory, and in this sense, as Ubiritane de Morais Rodrigues points out, it is part of a broader action of resistance in the struggle for the continuation of life on earth.