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- Huni Kuin Tradition, Plant Medicines and Spirituality - September 2, 2024
Tuesday, September 17th from 9am to 12:00pm PDT
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Price: $100
This workshop will focus on the history and teachings of the Huni Kuin people, which will be explored through dialogues with Huni Kuin as well as a film screening of Eskawata Kayawai. Topics to be explored include: ethnocide, reciprocity, right relationship, Indigenous traditions, values, thinking and ways of life, and how to honor Indigenous peoples. This workshop will provide an honest, direct, and in-depth understanding of the Huni Kuin people of the Amazon Rainforest who are experiencing the renaissance of their culture after decades of slavery and being forbidden to live their identity. Today, many Huni Kuin are traveling and exploring the globe and leading ceremonies outside of their home villages. Through direct storytelling and sharing of traditions and knowledge, this workshop will convey some of the views and experiences of the Huni Kuin. The film screening will serve as a bigger picture view of Huni Kuin in the Amazon Rainforest, and will provide an opportunity to learn from the directors of the film about the process of communicating the story of the Huni Kuin to the general public in a way that is authentic and honors the needs and wants of the Huni Kuin people. Join this workshop with speakers Rita Sales Kaxinawá, who is a researcher of the knowledge and traditions of the Huni Kuin people, and is politically engaged in the movement, and directors of the film Lara Jacoski, who is cultural producer and independent filmmaker since 2008, and Patrick Belem, who is a Brazilian filmmaker, journalist and musician.
Film Synopsis
In the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, the self-claimed Huni Kuin (meaning true people) are experiencing the renaissance of their culture after decades of slavery and being forbidden to live their identity. It was only in the year 2000 they started to remember who they really were by taking their sacred medicine ayahuasca in community. Their identity has returned after 20+ years of prayers and cultural strengthening undertaken by the spiritual leader Ninawá Pai da Mata and his village. In this feature film, we are taken by the villagers to the cacophony and the enchantments of the forest medicines sharing their culture and importance of identity of native people. Eskawata Kayawai – The Spirit of Transformation (2017-2023, Brazilian Amazon Rainforest) is a feature film directed by Lara Jacoski and Patrick Belem, and produced together with the first nation Huni Kuin, and co-produced with Norway. It received support from crowdfunding worldwide – Chacruna included has been a great partner from the production of the movie. Premiered in MAPS Psychedelic Science 2024, the biggest psychedelic conference in the world (Denver-US), the film has been accepted in more than 24 festivals, 14 countries, and has received 5 prizes so far.
Rita Sales Kaxinawá, Huni Kuin, is a researcher of the knowledge and traditions of the Huni Kuin people, and is politically engaged in the movement. Rita has a BA in letters, is a musician of traditional Huni Kuin songs, and is an artist (especially painting, traditional jewelry, and fabric making). Since 2013, she has been co-founder of the association Kayátibu, Jordão/Acre and in 2022 she became co-founder of the association of Indigenous women Ainbu Dayá. Her art has been exhibited in museums in Berlin (Fórum Humboldt and Mahalla Berlin Art Gallery), London (Paradise Row Projects), Minas Gerais (Museu do Índio UFU), Curitiba (Museu Paranaense Galeria Estação) and São Paulo (MAM and Museu das indigenous cultures). She has given presentations in London (Medicine Festival) and the Brazilian Embassy in Berlin for the panel “International alliances for indigenous peoples and the protection of the Amazon.
Lara Jacoski is a pilgrim, cultural producer and independent filmmaker since 2008, and has been walking through different cultures that broaden her horizon and art. In 2012, she founded Bem-te-vi Productions (BR) – Ethnographic projects that elevate ancestral voices with Patrick Belem, having produced award-winning films about culture diversity and alternative ways of living in London, Morocco, Bolivia, Peru, Thailand, Cambodia, India. Since 2017, moving the attention to Latin America, Lara has deepened her work in ethnographic projects focused on documenting culture and ways of life that refer to ancestral knowledge and the natural law that traditional people still live and preserve. The intent is that her projects can bring the local expression of each traditional people together with the signs of their own language and understanding of the world, but at the same time bridging to a multicultural language and connecting with global issues where every people and population can identify, remember and reflect.
Patrick Belem is a Brazilian filmmaker, journalist and musician – now releasing his first album. In 2012, he founded the production initiative Bem-te-vi Produções (BR) – Ethnographic projects that elevate ancestral voices, together with Lara Jacoski. This project consisted of walking through the five continents and specializing in ethnographic documentaries that capture ancestral cultures and diverse world-views that have a close relationship to the natural laws. They traveled from the heights of the Peruvian mountains to the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, and from the deserts of India to the mystic lagoons of Guatemala, meeting representatives who embody oral traditions and safeguard collective history. The duo then captured the expression of traditional peoples by their own understanding of the world, while at the same time bridging to a multicultural language connecting with global issues where anyone can identify, remember and reflect.
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