At the final reception event for the Tupinambá sacred shroud, indigenous people demanded action to demarcate lands and remove intruders from the territories of indigenous peoples. The event was held this Thursday (12) at the National Museum, where the shroud is housed, and was attended by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara, and other representatives of the federal, state and municipal governments.
Elder Yakuy Tupinambá criticized the procedures for returning the cloak and argued that it should be officially placed in Tupinambá territory, in Bahia, and not in the museum. She also criticized the thesis of the temporal framework and called for more measures to demarcate indigenous lands.
“We reiterate our dissatisfaction with the colonizing stance personified by the Brazilian State, through the representative authorities that once again tear apart our original rights and, much more than that, deeply harm what we value most: our beliefs and our faith,” said Yakuy Tupinambá.
“Our demands are: return of the cloak to the mother village Olivença [município no litoral baiano]building a museum of Tupinambá art; we demand respect and guarantee of our rights; autonomy of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, restructuring of Funai; amnesty and reparation for indigenous and African peoples; no to the temporal framework, demarcation now!”, he added.
Rio de Janeiro (RJ) 09/12/2024 – Tupinambá people from Olivença, in Bahia, participate in the celebration of the return of the Tupinambá Mantle to Brazil, at the National Museum. Photo: Fernando Frazao/Agency Brazil
President Lula emphasized that people can complain in front of the President of the Republic and the federal government, which did not happen in previous governments, when indigenous people were not even received by the president. According to him, there is a difficult political struggle to advance the rights of native peoples and he criticized the thesis of the temporal framework.
“I am also against the temporal framework thesis. I made a point of vetoing this attack on indigenous peoples. But the National Congress, using a prerogative backed by law, overturned my veto,” said Lula. “Most congressmen have no commitment to indigenous peoples. Their commitment is to large farms and large landowners.”
The president also stated that the government has made indigenous issues a priority and cited the creation of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples.
“We have carried out and continue to carry out the removal of intrusions from territories occupied by non-indigenous people. We have approved new lands and we are certain that we will do much more. We are always facing challenges, which are many and need to be addressed in a negotiated manner, with dialogue and transparency,” he stated.
Regarding the Tupinambá cloak, Lula argued that the National Museum should be considered a temporary shelter, and that conditions should be created for the transfer of the sacred object to the indigenous territory in Bahia.
“The cloak is in the National Museum, but I hope everyone understands that it does not belong here. I hope everyone understands, and I am sure that we will have the understanding of our governor of Bahia, who said that he is also Tupinambá. He has the obligation and the historic commitment to build a place in Bahia that can receive this cloak and preserve it,” said the president.
Tupinamba cloak
The Tupinambá cloak is 1.80 meters tall and is decorated with thousands of red feathers from maned birds. It was kept alongside four other cloaks in the National Museum of Denmark. It arrived in Copenhagen in 1689, but was probably made almost a century earlier.
Tupi artifacts were taken to Europe from the first Portuguese voyage to Brazil and the process continued over the following decades, as evidence of the “discovery” of the new territory and as valuable items for European collections.
Another ten similar cloaks, also made with guará feathers, remain expatriated in European museums, according to a survey carried out by North American researcher Amy Buono, from Chapman University.
In the National Museum of Denmark alone, there are four more in addition to the one that was returned to Brazil. In the Natural History Museum of the University of Florence (Italy), there are two more. There are also Tupinambá cloaks kept in the Museum of Cultures in Basel (Switzerland); in the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels (Belgium); Musée du Quai Branly in Paris (France); and in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan (Italy).
The donation of the cloak was announced in June 2023, after about a year of negotiations between institutions in Brazil and Denmark. The piece arrived in Brazil on July 11 of this year.
A schedule of celebrations was organized for the return of the cloak. Tupinambá spiritual leaders and shamans carried out activities to welcome, protect and bless the sacred cloak. For three days, the indigenous people kept vigil outside the National Museum.
