Ailton Krenak was born in 1953 in the Rio Doce valley, in the highland state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, the territory of the Krenak people to whom he belongs and whose environment has been profoundly affected by mining activities. In the late 1970s, he was one of the leading figures to emerge in the great awakening of Brazil's indigenous peoples. After the fall of the military dictatorship (1964-1985), his contribution was decisive in the opening of the "Indian chapter" in the drafting of the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, which obtained, at least on paper, recognition of the rights of indigenous cultures and lands. At the same time, he took part in the creation of the Union of Indigenous Nations, which became a nationwide political force. An activist in the environmental movement, in 1989 he organized the Alliance of Forest Peoples, bringing together communities of inhabitants and indigenous peoples of Amazonia, and lobbied Unesco for the creation of a biosphere reserve on the Serra do Espinhaço, which came into being in 2005. In the late 1980s, he founded the non-governmental organization Núcleo de Cultura Indígena to defend indigenous cultures. Since 2013, he has been teaching a lecture on indigenous care at Brazil's Open University. In 2016, the Federal University of Juiz de Fora awarded him an honorary doctorate for his contribution to the struggle for the rights of indigenous peoples and for his commitment to the environmental cause. In October 2023, the Brazilian Academy of Letters (equivalent to the French Academy) opened its doors to an indigenous author for the first time, electing him to the seat left vacant by the death of historian José Murilo de Carvalho. A central figure in Brazil's indigenous movement, "his voice is fundamental today, as a link between the rich cultural and historical heritage of indigenous peoples and national literature", declared the Académie, Brazil's most important linguistic and literary institution. In April 2024, he was awarded the Légion d'Honneur by the French ambassador in Brasilia.
Ailton Krenak was invited by the assembly of the Collège de France on the proposal of Professors Didier Fassin, Chair of Moral Questions and Political Issues in Contemporary Societies, and Philippe Descola, Chair of Anthropology of Nature.