L I B E R T I

with Glicéria Tupinambá, Serra do Padeiro 

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The photo series is about the Tupinambá mantle, a feather ornament that was made and used by native Brazilians until the 15th century. It is an exquisite piece of craftsmanship and design, with each cape holding over four thousand bird feathers.

They were made by the Tupinambá people, the largest and first ethnicity in Brazil to get in contact with Europeans during colonisation. Due to this, most of the Tupinambá were decimated, and the ones that were left were forced to become catholic and abdicate their culture in order to stay alive.

Until 2020, there were only eleven Tupinambá capes left in the world and all of them held in European museums and collections.

After centuries, the cape which is stored at the National Museum of Denmark, travelled to Brazil for an exhibition in 2000, only to return to Europe a while after, despite the requests of the indigenous for the cape to stay in the country. This encounter created ripples of affect in the remaining Tupinambá community, as the object stands as a vital symbol of their culture, and specially of what was taken from them. Over the past years, some descendants were able to claim back their ethnicity and land, but this fight didn’t come without a cost, as they constantly receive death threats which have been exposed at the UN.

During the pandemic in 2020, after years of research, Glicéria Tupinambá, indigenous artist, curator and leader, was finally able to recreate their sacred cape for the first time in over 300 years.

The feathers are all collected sustainably and the process of its construction involves their whole community.

In June 2021, after a long wait for a vaccine, I was able to travel to Serra do Padeiro, located in the south of the state of Bahia, where one of the last Tupinambá community resides. There I was able to meet Glicéria and photograph her process of manufacturing the capes and to further understand what this return means to her community. The following images are a result from this encounter and collaboration.

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The first recording of a Tupinambá cape in movement.

 

I started researching about capes that were unattainable,

untouchable,

still.

Of feathers that have been missing the warmth of a body for centuries.

I was now seeing it in movement, embracing Glicéria's body like an incorporation, feeling the energy of the birds that compose it, of the ancestors who guided and are connected to it. Seeing it in movement one can observe the characters it acquired from the different earth-based birds. Chickens, ducks, quick, agile.

That's how the cape asked to be.

Although I am not allowed to wear them, I was able to touch, smell, feel, and sleep in the same room as the cape.

I could see the colour of the feathers change as they touch the sun, as the wind connects with its tips, making them slightly dance on their own. All of these would have been impossible in a museum.

 

The Tupinambá cape is the proof of the systems that connect us in the universe, and here is mine.