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Sly as a wolf, swift as a jaguar or snug as a sloth in a tree? Amazonas Music Theatre asks “Which animal are you deep down inside?” – a question that has got kids around the world soul-searching for their animal sides.

Anyone aged 6 to 18 can take part in the poster and video contest “Humanimal: Which animal are you?“ The deadline for entries is 28 November 2010. A Brazilian/German panel will pick the winners. Prizes include iPods, Flip cams and an internship at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The theme of the contest comes all the way from the Yanomami Indians in northern Amazonia. They believe there is an animal lying dormant within each and every one of us, and that animal is what makes up a person’s soul.

The Yanomami are partners in the Amazonas Music Theatre project. In their organization called Hutukara Associação Yanomami, they worked together on the Amazonas project with the Goethe-Institut, the Munich Biennale, the SESC São Paulo and the ZKM. The project culminated in the Amazonas opera, which had its world premiere in May 2010 in Munich and was performed in São Paulo in July 2010.

Contest entries have already come in from many different countries, including Turkey, Spain and Ireland – where a pupil at a Pasch (“Schools: Partners of the future” that gives special emphasis to German language learning abroad) said his animal side is the Celtic tiger:


As part of our efforts to put across the message of the opera, the Amazonas Contest is intended to draw children and teenagers’ attention to the threats facing the Yanomami and their habitat, the primeval rain forest, as a result of slash-and-burn land clearance, climate change and mercury contamination by gold prospectors.

In addition to Internet activities, we’ve set up various workshops, some of which involve the Yanomami themselves: and when Davi, Enio and Dário Kopenawa came to Munich for the premiere of the Amazonas opera, they sat down with Munich schoolchildren and told them about the rain forest, about their people and about their concerns.

Pupils at the Ichoschule in Munich were so moved by their visitors that they decided: we’re going to help the Yanomami fight for the rain forest. They painted, cooked, crafted and then sold tote bags, friendship bands, postcards and avocado tortillas – for the benefit of their new friends. The Yanomami need our help – and plenty of humanimal qualities will serve: the speed of the jaguar, the cunning of the wolf – and even the Celtic tiger’s goal-tending skills.

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