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The Tikuna are the most numerous indigenous nation in the Brazilian Amazon and live in communities adjacent to the borders between Brazil, Colombia and Peru.

This new project, led by Renata Peters (UCL) in collaboration with Edson Tosta Matarezio Filho (Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS)), with specialist input from the Institute’s Digital Heritage Photographer, Antonio Reis, will investigate and document different aspects of the production of material culture and practices associated with the ‘Festa da Moça Nova’ (Young Woman’s Festival), with a focus on the use of tree bark known as ‘tururi’.Ìý

The three-day Tikuna rite of passage aims to protect young women from evil spirits during puberty, which also brings harmony to the community. Preparations start with the first menstrual cycle, when the young woman goes into isolation and the community starts the arrangements by carefully choosing the guests, who will produce musical instruments and dance masks made out of tururi and other natural materials.

The term ‘tururi’ is attributed to different artefacts and plants used in their production - but no rigorous botanical identification exists. Besides performing botanical identification, this collaborative project will document continuity and change in the procurement, choice, extraction and manufacturing technologies of tururi and other plant materials, their current uses, significance, and socio-cultural practices associated with the festival, as well as choices and uses of natural pigments.

This knowledge is under threat because of unregulated groups seeking to exploit natural resources in the lands surrounding the Tikuna and religious cults that come to these areas forbidding local populations from continuing indigenous traditions. As Tikuna sociocultural practices are intrinsically connected to the Amazonian ecosystem, these activities pose complex challenges for cultural continuity and knowledge transfer.Ìý

This research is generously supported by a grant from the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme (EMKP), awarded by the British Museum with funding from Arcadia, a charitable fund that supports people to record cultural heritage, to conserve and restore nature, and to promote open access to knowledge.

The EMKP Programme was established in 2018 with funding from Arcadia and is hosted by the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the British Museum. The programme supports the documentation of material knowledge systems that are under threat and in danger of disappearing globally.

Renata and Antonio have also been able to collaborate with the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Madrid which gave them access to study their collection of Tikuna masks from Colombia. Details of these masks will be made available in due course. Ìý

Images (all by Renata Peters):

• Header image:ÌýFrancisco Fidelis Ramos paints a tururi sheet using natural pigments and brushes.Ìý
• Top right:ÌýOscar Gregório Ramos, a respected Tikuna elder, and his son, Francisco Fidelis Ramos, expose the inner bark of the selected tree. Many other steps will follow until the process to transform the inner bark into tururi is complete.
• Bottom right:ÌýA painting tool and part of the colour pallet.

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