Ibã Huni Kuin (MAHKU Collective)

Ibã Huni Kuin (T.I. Huni Kuin Rio Jordão) is a txana (singing master) of the MAHKU (Huni Kuin Artists Movement). The Huni Kuin live on the border of Brazil and Peru, however, they are also spread out amongst several Indigenous lands in the state of Acré. They speak the hatxa kuin dialect, belonging to the linguistic family Pano. They have a history of close contact with the ‘seringalista’ economy – owners of farmlands who dealt with the extraction of natural rubber from the Hevea plants, which dominated the Amazonian region during a crucial period of the 20th century.

MAHKU is a collective of artist-researchers from the Huni Kuin people. MAHKU
started from the traditional training process that Ibã Huni Kuin (Isaias Sales) did with his father Tuin Huni Kuin (Romão Sales), a notable researcher on the knowledge of the Huni Kuin people. Throughout his life, he safeguarded the musical knowledge and rituals that were in danger of disappearing in a society based around rubber tapping. Ibã combined this traditional training with the tools of writing and research, gained through training as a teacher, and began to record and publish these songs.