Photo 01: Kisibi Kumu, the shaman and leader of this family of the Dessana ethnicity in Tupé, Amazon, Brazil. Photo 02: Family dance. Photo 03: Male dance #1. Photo 04: Male dance #2 Photo 05: Male dance #3.
The Dessana ethnicity has its origin in the Upper Rio Negro (Black River), on the banks of the Tiquié River in Pari-Cachoeira, a community nearby São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazon, Brazil, that has lost a lot of the indigenous culture.
With the arrival of the Catholic Church in Pari-Cachoeira, the indigenous were catechized and their culture started to be destroyed. The native Indians were forbidden to live the richness of their culture and tradition under the pretext that their cult was sinful and a thing of the Devil. The priests came to convert the Indians; boys and girls were separated to avoid “sinâ€, and carried off to the boarding school, where they worked their fingers to the bone. Pari-Cachoeira became a Catholic town; all indigenous instruments were collected and taken to Manaus, the capital of Amazonas, where they remain in the Indian Museum to this day. The military presence in Pari-Cachoeira intensified extermination of indigenous culture.
In 1995, some remnants of the Dessana community moved to the lower Rio Negro, in the Tupé region, near Manaus. At this location, led by shaman Kisibi Kumu, the community is recuperating its culture; they have made new instruments. Kisibi Kumu recalls that when he was 10 years old, his father spent a year teaching him traditional prayers every night, until morning. Then, his father assessed his knowledge, asking him: “Son, now you are the teacher: tell me everything you have learned.†Now is the shaman who teaches everything to youngsters. They are not afraid to “burn in Hell†for living their culture, as the priests once threatened them. The community survives on tourism and handicrafts.