Yawanawá - politics and enterprise

The Yawanawá tribe have now secured the rights to around 187,000 ha (there are different figures mentioned, and some talk of 198,000 ha) of land which makes up the so-called Rio Gregório Indigenous Territory. This is roughly just over half the size of the county of Kent in South East England. 




But for a people rooted in a kind of hunter, gatherer, forager tradition organised in the communities of varies families (communities are formed by Yawanawá families, Arara (people of the macaw), Kãmãnawa (people of the jaguar), Iskunawa (people of Japan), Ushunawa (people of white color), Shanenawa (people of the blue bird), Rununawa (the snake people) and Kaxinawá (people the bat)), that had contacted and traded with rubber tappers and later also the protestant missionaries, concepts of land rights must have been strange and to a certain extent probably still is. Modern states and governments rely on a number of conditions that they must control in order to exist, including most importantly a monopoly over weapons, control over territory, which it can define, and its associated potential resources for exploitation from that territory, the issuing of taxes as an income to engage in the market economy and the definition of legal frameworks. Though democratic states seek to separate aspects of these powers, nevertheless indigenous people typically operate outside or on the fringes of those controls. For example Nahoum (2013) believes that most if not all of the Yawanawá people probably have an income below the tax threshold and might receive some kind of financial benefit. This does not seem to be as clear though, as some do work for the Funai government agency for example, that is those at least that do not live in the tribal settlements but in the towns, including Rio Branco. Funai is a government organization that represents, works and supports the Brazilian indigenous people. This then raises the question of how to classify the Yawanawá people, is it just those living in the tribal communities? Classification of people is long standing issue in anthropology, sociology and of course politics. For a powerful poetic reminder around the issue of identity and associated public, commercial and political pressures see the poem "Love You Some Indians" by Navajo poet Rowie Shebala. The relationship between tribe and the state appears at times uncomfortable.


Originally the Yawanawá tribe people are thought to have come across from the Andes in Peru being possibly related to the Incas. It is not clear when that was but they is little doubt that they like other tribes came into contact and under the influence and control of the rubber tappers (or rather the bosses that controlled the tappers) that were moving into the Amazon in the 19th and early 20th century. Indeed it is likely that they had a sort of slave like relationship with these invaders and that the Yawanawá culture, traditions and ways of life were deeply affected and altered. The missionary quest did the rest. From current oral history it is claimed that the missionaries came first in contact with the Kaxinawá family who lived in an area about an hour by boat West of the village Nova Esperança sometime in the 1960s. The missionaries seem to have been from the New Tribe Mission , established in the 1940s in the US, though other missionaries were present in the region, such as the Acre Tribal Mission , who came originally from Northern Ireland. It is needless to say that the effects the ‘contact’ had on the traditions, beliefs and social cohesion of the Yawanawá tribe must have been disruptive and still is, indeed many members ended up as practicing Christians and the tribe increasingly depended on the Western way of life in one way or another.

It was in the settlement of Escondido where the Yawanawá believe they first met the missionaries in the 1960s.

Provision of services, trading etc plus the questioning of their own culture enforced by the missionaries drove some of the Yawanawá people to move into the towns, especially Tarauacá. The living condition of the Yawanawá people there, as far I could see, are basic to very poor, certainly by Western European standards. The town also serves as a place to purchase most necessary goods, withdraw pension payments and other benefits, vote in elections (some Yawanawá are listed on the Brazilian electrical register), access health services if not solvable in the villages. It is also the place where the Yawanawá Associations are based. One of the Association has Yawanawá a building here to accommodate Yawanawá people visiting the town. Basically the seven or eight Yawa villages are organized around two associations, the Cooperative Agro Yawanawa - Cooppyawa and the Yawanawá Sociocultural Association.

The preservation, the reinvention, the defense of the rights of indigenous people has been an ongoing battle, probably since the very first contact with Westerners, this is no different in the state of Acre and including the Yawanawá people. Some people have been pioneers in that struggle and in the support of the indigenous rights, helping to enable young leaders such as Biraci Brasil Yawanawá to take positive actions and work towards securing the rights to their land. Nahoum (2013) provides some information regarding this initial struggle having interviewed Biraci. In many ways their struggle form part of the story of defending the Amazon in Brazil. As Hecht and Cockburn (2011) point out “Brazil’s Amazon scramble was a 19th century form of nation building replete with explorers, freebooters, speculators, fraudulent maps, spies, plenipotentiaries, competing and contradictory court judgments, and romantic revolutionaries”. For a general overview of tribes in Brazil see



Reference 1



and a specific Yawanawá reference see



Reference 2




An important figure in the local development was Terri Aquino and his work in the 70s onwards. His work is documented in a recent book in Portuguese (Txai Terri de Aquino, Papo de Índio, 2012), a compilation of his commentaries and analyses. See also (in Portuguese)




Reference 3




Txai Terri together with Wilson Pinheiro and Chico Mendes campaigned strongly for the rights of indigenous people and against the loggers, defending the Amazon. The latter two, as is ‘well’ documented, were assassinated in 1980 and 1988 respectively. See



Reference 4


(and also wikipidia.en) as well as



Reference 5




The political struggle for access to land and its resource, the preservation or rebuilding of traditions and indigenous culture became decisively tight up with the sustainability agenda following the Rio 92 Earth Summit (see above) to which the then young Biraci Brasil Yawanawá was invited by another leader from another tribe to join him to attend. It appears that following this event and the meeting between the young aspirational leader Biraci and the environmentally aware international cosmetics company Aveda at the Summit with a view of a longer term supportive collaboration in exchange for the supply of some products and no doubt ‘the story’. Aveda themselves portray the relationship in a somewhat romantic promotional manner, see



Reference 6



Others have commented on this relationship, it’s the focus of Nahoum PhD thesis, including Kimberly J. Lau’s “New Age Capitalism: Making Money East of Eden” (2000) and more recently John Lyons piece “Skin-Deep Gains for Amazon Tribe” in the Wall Street Journal online on 5 May 2011. And it appears that this relationship with Aveda let to other relationships and developments, including the interest of a banker with business interest in investing in the Amazon Hylton Murray-Philipson, now based in London, who believes that the principle of profit is the only way to save the rainforest (see “Investing to save rainforests: An interview with Hylton Murray-Philipson of Canopy Capital” by Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com; April 2, 2008


Reference 7



He is one of the Western investors who forged collaborative relationship with the Yawanawá people or rather some of their leaders, getting directly involved with the tribal affairs. Yet later he seemed to have severed the relationship. Already in 2004 journalist Stanley Johnson reported on Hylton and the Yawanawá people (see “On the road to ruin” published in The Telegraph, Saturday 4th December 2004, see



Reference 8




On of the things that is interesting about Johnson’s article is that he seems to believe that there was one coherent Yawanawá people, referencing Joaquim Tashka Yawanawá and his father Raimundo, but not other leaders including the instrumental older cousin Biraci. Indeed, following the increasing collaboration with the Western world, a split (Nahoum, 2013 refers to it and also John Lyons, 2011), seemed to have appeared within the tribe broadly divided between the two brothers Biraci Brasil Yawanawá on the one hand, having returned to live in the tribe and looking to more actively lead on the traditional values of the tribe and was initially the lead regarding the relationship with Aveda, and Joaquim Tashka Yawanawá, who lives in Rio Branco and, who, following the leadership takeover in 2001, seems to manage the communication and sponsorship with key external stakeholders, is active in promoting the tribe, participating in conferences and giving talks, including TEDX, see



Reference 9



or inviting researchers to visit the Yawanawá villages, see



Reference 10



His profile can be viewed here



Reference 11




Following the Rio Summit the Yawanawá established a new and the largest village called Aldeia Nova Esperança (New Hope Village) in 1993. With maybe over 300 people living there or possibly 400 it probably makes up about half of the Yawanawá population. It also became the place for an annual week-long professionally organized Yawanawá festival, a ethno-tourist project geared towards Westerners to participate in for around a £1,000 fee and with about 1000 to 1200 ? visitors attending, which could be seen as a substantive generation of additional income, see



Reference 12



In 2014 the festival was held in the village of Mutum , see this promotional video

And there seems to be a whole raft of social media and online documentation and advertising for the festival, see for example these



Example 1


Example 2


Example 3



Other income sources are the making of traditional jewellery, teaching by shamans and the sale of various medicinal substances such as ayahuasca, kambo and rape, and a number of companies or entrepreneurs other than Aveda seem to be trading with the Yawanawá, such as


Example 4



At times mixing ‘interesting’ blogging and product placement, see


Example 5


Example 6



The other substance, ayahuasca (see What is ayahuasca?) is prohibited to import by most countries but increasingly young people travel to North-West Brazil and Peru for a ayahuasca experience, including the Yawanawá (see Why do people take ayahuasca?) . Of course there are also scientific reports the effects of ayahuasca which are inconclusive, i.e.


Reference 13


Ayahuasca and shamanism go hand in hand, see


Reference 14



and I had the pleasure to meet Tata the lead shaman of around 100 years of age, who still teaches not only his own people but also those from outside. Sessions can last for several weeks. Also some younger people travel outside the festival period to experience and study the spirituality and I happened to briefly two young women, one from Rio de Janeiro and one from Denmark, a most unlikely couple traveling it seemed. Spirituality, hallucinating plants, medical plants are of course business, and much knowledge about these reside inside indigenous communities, including the Yawanawá. As it happened I came across Dennis Notten, a Dutch guy who got into alternative medicine some time ago and who came to learn about different medical plants from a very knowledgeable Yawanawá medicine man and by the time I met him, he had already spent something like three weeks there having a built a small what he called medicine hut with the help of locals who he paid as well as staring a garden of medicine plants. He told me that he and others ran an alternative medicine centre in Peru for cancer patients from all over the world. He said it wasn’t about curing patients but about cleansing, though his website talks of a healing centre. He said he was here to help, though I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I guessed he meant the establishment of some kind of alternative medical centre, anyway a few days later when I returned he had left?

Dennis from the Netherlands with a Yawanawá medicine man, from whom he wants to learn about local medicine plants.

Young women from Rio and Denmark en route back to Nova Esperança studying spirituality after having had a break in Tarauacá.

Lead shaman Tata teaching at the school located in the sacred part of Escondido.