Rapé Ceremony w/ Tuim Nova Era, Dona Txima & Yeke Kaya

The Huni Kuin, also known as the Kaxinawá or “True People,” are an Indigenous tribe of the Brazilian Amazon near Peru’s border. One of the largest Indigenous groups in Acre, they inhabit twelve territories along seven rivers. Despite recent contact with the Western world, they have preserved their language—Hãtxa Kuin—and ancestral traditions, including sacred rituals, chants, and plant medicine practices like rapé. Ceremonies like the Nixpu Pima (children’s baptism) and Katxanawa (harvest dance) are vital to communal life. As forest guardians, they carry the message of Xina Bena—a time for humanity and nature to reconcile—and travel to raise awareness and build alliances to protect their culture, lands, and medicines.

Tuim Nova Era is the cacique and spiritual leader of the Huni Kuin village Espelho da Vida and a key figure in the revival of Huni Kuin culture since 2000. After studying in Rio Branco, he realised his people were losing touch with their traditions and began recovering ancestral knowledge—such as the use of rapé, the nixi pae (Ayahuasca) ceremony, the muká dieta, jenipapo body painting, and the Katxanawá dance. He introduced the guitar to traditional chants and continues to lead ceremonies. He founded the Hiwea Kiri Keisiti Centre and the Yuxibu Nuku Shushawai Residency.

Dona Txima is one of the oldest traditional plant healers of the Huni Kuin people of the Humaita River and the elder of the Huni Kuin women’s collective Keneya Xarabu. She has played a key role in reviving the knowledge of Kêne, the ancestral healing designs found in Huni Kuin clothing and jewellery. At a time when this tradition was nearly lost, Dona Txima travelled to other Indigenous territories to restore and strengthen it. She later returned to share this knowledge with other Huni Kuin women.

Yeke Kaya, the daughter of Tuim Nova Era, has emerged as a dedicated young guardian of her people’s sacred chants. Immersed in the study of Huni Kuin plant medicines and traditional dietas since childhood, she now plays a leading role as the women’s coordinator in Espelho da Vida village.

Rapé, a dried tobacco and tree ashes powder, is a sacred medicine used thousands of years ago by different indigenous tribes in the Amazon rainforest like the Yawanawá and Noke Koi people. It is known for clearing the mind, grounding and connecting to your energy system and chakras. Rapé medicine invites you into a deep state of meditation which can liberate many emotions and parts of our unconscious mind.

Ceremony @ The Cosmic Lounge, 18:00h

Please note that the festival ticket does not give access to the ceremony. The festival organisation will email you instructions for the pre-booking system for this event.