Writer and activist Ailton Krenak on Friday became the first Indigenous person inducted into the Brazilian Academy of Letters, as dancers in feather headdresses shook up the staid proceedings of the country’s leading literary institution.

Wearing an Indigenous bead bandana along with the traditional gold-embroidered suit of the Academy’s members, Krenak joked about his “distinguished new outfit” and feeling a bit out of place in the predominantly white institution.

Krenak, 70, is known for an acclaimed body of work criticizing the excesses of colonialism and capitalism, including the essay collection “Ideas to Postpone the End of the World” (2019), which has been translated into more than 10 languages.

He is the first member of Brazil’s more than 300 Indigenous peoples to be inducted into the Academy, the rough equivalent of France’s revered Academie Francaise or Spain’s Real Academia.