The Kanela Ramkokamekrá are part of the immense Timbira family, which other peoples are also recognized, including the Krikati in Maranhão, the Kraho no Tocantins and the Kykatejê in Pará.

The songs presented for this documentary are a small sample of the vast musical repertoire celebrated at the festive ceremonies entitled Amjkin, of which stand out the Pepka hác ritual for the appointment of Timbira leaders; the Tepyarkwá, the great Fish Festival that brings together many guests; and Kokrit, the party of masks.

The colors and sounds stand out in the landscape of the Maranhão Cerrado. The controversial red clay road, which tears the Kanela Indigenous Land, opens the way for the farms of the region, and also takes us to the central courtyard of the Escalvado village, still in a circular shape, characteristic common to these peoples, and it is from there that the Ramkokamekra corners echo from dawn inside.

Director: Diego Janatã and Djuena Tikuna
Year: 2021
Singers/Testimonials:
Marinaldo Kenikun Kanela
Justin Keniavile Kanela
Osmar Kalohle Window
Suely Konikree Kanela

This documentary records the process of construction and execution of the Iburi trumpet, by the Ticuna Indians, an instrument that is played during the New Girl Festival, a ritual of women’s initiation of the Ticuna. The girl who has been menstruated for the first time will be held until her Party is ready, at the end of which she will leave seclusion. Behind the place of seclusion will be the instruments that will advise the girl. Such instruments cannot be seen by women, children, and especially by the girl who is being initiated. In parallel with the construction of the Iburi, the film shows the story of To’oena, the “first young girl” who, in the time of the myth, broke this taboo and paid with her own life.

Direction, screenplay and photography: Edson Tosta Matarezio Filho
Genre: Documentary
Realization: Image and Sound Laboratory in Anthropology (LISA-USP)
Support: FAPESP
Duration: 15 min
Year: 2014

Participants: Edson Matarezio and Djuena Tikuna

Magda Pucci Mediation

Studies in Indigenous Ethnomusicology in Brazil have been expanding increasingly since the 1980s and present, in academic format, the different ways of existing and making music from different peoples.

Today, many Indians have researched their own traditions and created ways to disseminate their cultural expressions. In this chat, researcher Edson Matarezio and singer Tikuna talk about an important Tikuna ritual: the New Young Young Young Young Party, whose record will be shown before the conversation round.

Duena Tikuna
Brazilian indigenous singer from the State of Amazonas who made history, in 2017, by becoming the first indigenous to star in a musical show at the Teatro Amazonas (Manaus), in the 121 years of the site’s existence, where she released the album Tchautchiüãne. He also held the first Indigenous Music Show in his State. All his compositions are in Tikuna, the name of the people and language of the Amerindians who inhabit the border area between Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Daughter of Nutchametükü and Tochimaüna, born in Umariaçu, “on the borders” of Brazil, Peru and Colombia, Djuena — “the jaguar that jumps in the river” — sings the culture of her people, keeping her history alive. His singing of struggle and resistance has been an example for the new generations. His first album Tchautchiüãne (2017) [My Village] was nominated for the Indigenous Music Awards, the world’s largest indigenous music award.

Edson Matarezio
Graduated in Social Sciences, Master and PhD in Anthropology from the University of São Paulo (USP). He is the author of the books “Ritual and Person among the Waimiri-Atroari” (2014), “The New Young Girl’s Festival: Women’s Initiation Ritual of the Ticuna Indians” (2019), several articles and documentary films. He conducted a postdoctoral research at USP, the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale (LAS/Paris) and at the Department of Linguistics of UNAL (Colombia). He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Amazonas State University (UEA).