Researching Brazilian Indigenous Art in the Amazon Forest

My project aims to understand and to study the techniques of the Huni Kuin people of Brazil as form of documentation and conversation of their culture amidst the political turmoils Brazil goes through regularly.

Jul 17, 2023

Joao Pedro Medeiros

Student, Tufts University

Liked by Noura McNelis Mahmoud

As a Brazilian student in the US studying fine arts, understanding more about the artists' practices of the native people of my country has always been a goal of mine. My research project works with the Huni Kuin people, who inhabit the Brazilian Amazon border with the Peruvian side of the forest.

I recently went to their tribe to do the in-person part of the research - it took me a 7-hour flight inside of Brazil, a 1.5-hour flight in a small place over the rain forest (see pics, one of the prettiest views I have ever experienced), a 5-hour hike, and an 08-hour small-boat ride down the Amazonian river. I spent 10 days there, where I learned about their art practices, and how such reflects within their history, societal structure, and opportunities in a capitalistic system. Now, I am formulating my research in response to everything I was able to experience and learn from the elders at the tribe. Can't wait to wrap everything up!