Indigenous leaders frustrated despite cloak’s return to Brazil after 300 years

What was meant to be an occasion for celebration for the Tupinambá de Olivença Indigenous people – the long-awaited reunion with a sacred cloak taken from Brazil more than three centuries ago – has turned into a moment of frustration.

Rio de Janeiro’s National Museum recently announced that it had received the artefact, which is more than 300 years old, from the Nationalmuseet, Denmark’s National Museum.

But Tupinambá de Olivença leaders have complained they were prevented from performing the necessary rituals to receive the relic, which is considered sacred.

“I’m happy because the cloak has returned to Brazil, but I’m sad because there was a lack of respect for the Tupinambá people and our ancestry,” said the leader of the Tupinambá de Olivença people, Cacique Jamopoty Tupinambá, 62.

“They’re treating the cloak as an object, but for us, it’s an elder, an ancestor,” said Jamopoty, the first woman in her community – which encompasses three cities of Bahia state – to become a cacique (chief).

The artefact, made with about 4,000 red feathers of the scarlet ibis bird (which resembles a small flamingo), was first inventoried by Denmark in 1689, but some believe it was taken from Brazil nearly 50 years before.

“My mother used to say that her grandfather and great-grandfather told her that when this sacred piece was taken, the village weakened,” said Cacique Jamopoty. “They believed it would one day return to strengthen the village.”

The relic’s journey back home began in 2000, when the Nationalmuseet lent it for an exhibition in São Paulo. Jamopoty’s mother, Nivalda Amaral de Jesus, known as Amotara, visited the exhibit and demanded its return to Brazil .

Amotara died in 2018. An article by the Brazilian magazine Piauí revived the issue in 2021, but it was only last year that the Danish museum finally announced it would donate the artefact to its Brazilian counterpart.

Cacique Jamopoty says Rio’s National Museum had committed to informing the Tupinambá de Olivença about all the steps regarding the relic’s repatriation. But the Indigenous community was only informed four days after the piece’s arrival.

“When you meet an elder, you ask for their blessing,” she said. “That’s what we wanted to do with our ancestor as soon as he set foot on Brazilian soil.

“We wanted to perform our rituals, with songs and incense using our herbs … It would have been a special moment for strengthening our identity,” said the chief.

After the Tupinambá de Olivença’s complaint became public, the National Museum’s director, Alexander Kellner, posted on X that “it would be an illusion to think that an issue like this would not spark controversy”.

He wrote that the piece had been “in a country with very different climatic conditions for at least 350 years”; therefore, “it needs an adaptation period for its safety”.

Cacique Jamopoty said that, after their complaint, the Museum invited them to visit the piece in the coming weeks. This Wednesday, leaders and elders of the Tupinambá de Olivença will meet and decide if and when they will come to Rio.

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The National Museum is still under reconstruction after the massive fire that destroyed almost its entire collection in 2018. The reopening is scheduled for 2026, but the Tupinambá cloak will be shown next month in a 100m² room adjacent to the museum.

A report published in 2018 showed that 10 other Tupinambá cloaks are scattered across European museums – four of them are in the Nationalmuseet alone. There is no indication if or when they will return to Brazil.