Kuikuro

Impact

The crafts of the Kuikuro people are related to knowledge about the management of plant species, transportation, storage of raw materials and the use of ancestral techniques associated with social technologies and manual crafts. In this process, new raw materials are tested and the art transforms over time, as a result of the dynamics that surround it, while at the same time strengthening the cultural foundations that inspire it. The art of the Kuikuro people is focused on weaving, basketry, architecture and ceramics.

History

Mein Ahu Kuikuro is a Kuikuro woman born in the Ipatse village, located in Alto Xingu (MT). As a child, she learned to make and produce crafts from the women of her tribe. Throughout his life, he also developed the arts of products. Mein is one of the female artists of the Kuikuro people, who, alongside several other indigenous people, made their people's art recognized nationally and internationally.

Before knowing money, the Kuikuro people made handicrafts to use in daily rituals, give gifts to in-laws and exchange (“iuki”) with other women. Today the production of handicrafts plays an important role in the family economy of the Ipatse village and other villages in the Xingu region.

Who does

Kuikuro women and men produce handicrafts. There are baskets woven with buriti fiber, to store fruits and fish caught in the river, which are made by women, as well as other types of baskets, used to carry cassava, for example, which are produced by men in the village.

To make a sleeping hammock, women spend a whole day collecting material. Preparing the material can take up to two weeks, while making the net will take another three weeks to complete.

Products

Art has value not only in itself, but represents, throughout the production process, a translation of ancestral ways of making and carries the history of the Kuikuro people and the people who produce it.

Among the types of crafts carried out by the indigenous populations of the Xingu, adornments, artifacts, clothing, instruments, ritual, utilitarian and decorative objects stand out. The materials used are from the village region. The Kuikuro make great use of buriti fibers, straws and threads.