Last Born In The Wilderness

[Intro: 22:35] In this episode, I speak with Kevin Tucker, author of ‘The Cull of Personality: Ayahuasca, Colonialism and the Death of a Healer’ — the subject of this interview. The book takes a deep dive into the reality of the ayahuasca eco-tourism industry, and places it within the centuries-long history of colonialism and resource extraction in the Amazon Region, in particular Peru, where much of narrative of this book is centered. The book begins with the description of the murder of 81-year-old Indigenous rights activist and healer Olivia Arevalo, a member of the Shipibo-Conibo people in Peru, by Sebastian Woodroffe, a Canadian man seeking to extract the methods of the Shipibo-Conibo practice of administering the psychedelic brew ayahuasca for healing purposes. On April 19th of last year, Arevalo was killed in her home in the Ucayali region in Peru. Records show Woodroffe purchased a gun from a local police officer, and was the individual that confronted Arevalo at her home, subsequently leading to h