Dan Cruickshank: I’m at Cuiaba in the western Brazil — and I’m about to fly, go by car, and by boat, around 750 kilometres into the Amazon rainforest to find my living treasure. My treasure’s not an ancient artifact, but something very special that continues to be created and used by people deep in the rainforest.
After several hours, we cross the threshold into what remains of the rainforest. It’s been fenced off and is now protected by the Brazilian government. I head down the Warema River, a tributary of the Amazon, towards my treasure. It’s an unbelievably beautiful work of art, created by a tribe called the Igbatsa (Rikbaktsa).
Excellent reception committee. Wonder who I approach. Hello.
That is what I’ve come to see — the headdress. My most colourful of treasures is a symbol of the Amazon and an object of immense importance to these people.
Here we go.
Oh my god. Wow. I expected one, maybe two, umahara, but a whole hut full. Beautiful objects, beautifully made, but more to the point, they’re full of meaning to these people. They celebrate their culture, their aspirations, their religion. And made from human hair, parrot feathers. Ah, absolutely wonderful.
The umahara headdress is worn with great pride by the Igbatsa (Rikbaktsa) people. It’s the emblem of an endangered culture. It once played a key role in war ceremonies and is still used in dance rituals.
This dance takes place every day for 90 days after the first of June. It’s a celebration of birth and all things new. During the dance wives have the right to ask favours of their husbands, who are obliged to grant them.
After the dance, I talk to members of the tribe about the headdress and how it’s made.
Can I ask what it — what it means to them today, the umahara headdress?
Interpreter: He says the umahara represents a great richness in their own culture. And for their future. For their future, they shouldn’t stop creating it and using it for their own use.
Dan Cruickshank: Represents their sense of identity really.
Interpreter:It represents the identity of the Igbatsa (Rikbaktsa) people.
Dan Cruickshank: So we’ve got feathers from parrots and — and female hair. That — that is correct, is it ... really? On — onto —
Interpreter: This is from the — a Marella clan.
Dan Cruickshank: Yes, there is the hair.
It’s all rather perplexing. To preserve their traditions, the Igbatsa (Rikbaktsa) have to make the umahara headdresses. Yet in so doing, they must kill protected bird the men and women are brightly painted in the tradit·ional way, they sport in natty shorts and bikini tops. Bit by bit, the Igbatsa (Rikbaktsa) are being drawn into the modern world, whether they like it or not.
As evening approaches, preparations are being made for supper. A rather tasty feast awaits me. This all brings back very deep memories. The family halls scattered round about the compound, the main hall where the communal ceremonies take place — the people gathered round the fire at night eating. The fields round about. It’s like an Anglo-Saxon village in England a couple of hundred years ago. It’s like meeting one’s ancestors coming back here.
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