Dear precious One,
You are invited on a mystical journey into the depth of the Amazonian Rainforest. This is a once in a life time opportunity to be with, learn from, heal and laugh with the Yawanawá tribe. To study their rich culture and the way of working with the sacred medicines from the forest.
We will get together to celebrate life. Our journey will begin with the Mamã Kênama festival, a gathering of the Yawanawa tribe from surrounding villages. An ancient traditional drink called Caiçuma is made by the women and served to all after the leaders announcement. In the days to come there will be traditional sacred ceremonies, plant baths, our bodies will be painted by nature, we will receive Rume (Rapé) initiations, learn Yawanawá songs and stories, and dance together under the stars. A Kambo healing session will be available to those that want this experience. A special diet will also be offered to those who wish.
This is a time in which we can deeply align our bodies and spirits with the forest, heal and cleanse our selves and pray for our life and the lives of others.
With this announcement Matsini and Hushahu Yawanawá, with their family and tribe, are calling you to come celebrate, heal, study, share, shine and live together in happiness and harmony, within the Yawanawá tradition. Mamã Kênama will be opened with a traditional Mini-Festival that invites us to joyfully discover their traditional games and each other with a lot of joy, action and smiles.
Come, let's celebrate Life together!
The Yawanawa Tribe
The Yawanawá are the legal guardians of almost half a million acres of Brasilian Amazon. There are over 1,000 Yawanawá, living in 9 tribal villages along the Gregório River. The Yawanawá and their allies are dedicated to developing a model of sustainability that allows them to protect their lands and engage with the outside world on their own terms, without compromising their cultural and spiritual identity.
The tribe has been working tirelessly to increase territory, reinvigorate Yawanawá culture, and establish economically and socially empowering relationships with the outside world. They plant and hunt their own food and live in wooden houses, their pharmacy is the forest. Due to a history with missionaries, part of their culture got lost and devalued. However, today they recaptured a lot of their tradition and are very grateful and proud to be able to share this beautiful treasure. Yawanawá roughly translates to "people of the wild boar”.
The Medicines
Rume (Rapé)
For the Yawanawá tribe Rume is the principal medicine. It's the medicine that gives security and that has the strongest healing power. Being with the Yawanawá one can really study this medicine and part of the study is to receive a Rume initiation.
Sacred Tea
Sacred Tea is the drink they have been using since their very beginning. It is the primary medicine used to connect you to what the Yawanawá call "the force”, the spiritual dimension present that we typically do not have access to. In the village the Sacred Tea is traditionally brewed fresh before a ceremony and we have the opportunity to accompany the process of preparation.
Sananga (Kanapa Vetxexeketi)
Sananga is a medicine, made from the bark of the root of a plant called Tabernaemontana genus. Sananga has various properties, it can help to heal the physical eye, improve eye sight, it can help to open the third eye and inner vision, it illuminates subconscious mind patterns, it can 'break' mental or emotional 'loops' and it is used to relieve headache.
And many more medicines including Kambo, Nipu plant baths, Urucum and Jenipapo body painting.
Our Guides
Hushahu Yawanawá
One of the first women to be initiated in the spiritual path of the Yawanawá with over 15 years of experience in the study of the universe of ancestral healing plants. She has done several years of plant diets with the blessings of her father, the leader Raimundo Tuinkuru and the teachings of the great shaman Tatá. She has helped a lot of women in the tribe to find back their force and freedom and recaptured a lot of the Yawanawá culture by receiving patterns of body painting and handcrafts and songs. She is today considered the main female shaman of the tribe and well respected by her own tribe as well as internationally.
Matsini Yawanawá
As a son of a shaman, Matsini Yawanawá grew up working with the medicines and learning about the spiritual path from very early age. His father taught him a lot and he was together with his sister Hushahu, also a very dedicated student of the great shaman Tatá. When he grew up he became the spiritual leader of the Village Mutum. And is currently the chief of Mutum. He is guiding many young Yawanawá people as well as not-native people into the culture, diets and spiritual studies of the Yawanawá with a lot of care and dedication.
