Colours of the Forest
Naturally dyed cotton yarns created by Mehinaku women in Kaupüna, following workshops led by Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros and natural dye researcher Maibe Maroccolo.
Naturally dyed cotton yarns created by Mehinaku women in Kaupüna, following workshops led by Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros and natural dye researcher Maibe Maroccolo. Photo by Lucas Rosin.
Xingu: Indigenous Reflections in Contemporary Design
Morning unfolds slowly in the village of Kaupüna, home to the Mehinaku, one of the sixteen Indigenous groups in the Xingu Indigenous Territory, located in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The cool red earth is marked by children's dances from the day before, while smoke curls from fires where beiju — a thin, round bread made from cassava — is being prepared. Its scent mingles with the sweetness of crushed urucum seeds used for body paint — a plant that also carries protective and ritual value. Hammocks sway in the shade, woven from buriti palm fibres that catch the early light. This sacred tree provides not only weaving fibres, but also nourishment, shade, and spiritual significance — anchoring many of the Mehinaku's daily and ceremonial practices.
Today, the Mehinaku number around 500 people. They live in harmony with their rivers and forests, carrying forward rituals, stories, and craftsmanship that nourish both memory and community. For them, craft is inseparable from life; a mat, a basket, a bench, or a hammock is never just an object — it is an extension of kinship, territory, and cosmology.
Every gesture carries knowledge: the right moment to harvest the buriti palm, the pressure of fibres twisted on a thigh, and the patient drying of wood before carving. These skills represent threads of connection — among generations, between bodies and landscapes, and between the visible and the unseen.
However, it is precisely in the face of such a scene that the risk of misinterpretation arises. The beauty of the Xingu — its sounds, colours, and gestures — can easily be romanticised or exoticised by outside observers. For centuries, design and art history have extracted Indigenous practices as aesthetic inspiration, cataloguing them as artefacts or idealising them as untouched traditions. In both instances, Indigenous peoples are denied their current existence and often portrayed as either frozen in the past or transformed into distant, symbolic figures.
Yet the Mehinaku live fully in the present. Their society is sustained not only by crafts and rituals but also by political and economic systems that ensure autonomy in the Upper Xingu. Economically, they fluidly navigate between subsistence practices, such as fishing, farming, and weaving, and broader exchanges, selling crafts or engaging in collaborations that generate income while enhancing cultural pride.
Mehinaku life, therefore, cannot be reduced to mere "tradition" or aesthetics. It is a living system of knowledge: a dynamic interplay of governance, economy, and culture, rooted in territory yet responsive to the world beyond.
Tracing Stories
Among those who have come to learn from and collaborate with the Mehinaku is designer Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros, founder of the studio Yankatu. Drawn by a deep respect for ancestral knowledge, her work seeks to connect design with storytelling, memory, and reciprocity.
Yankatu is more than just a design studio; it serves as a platform for dialogue and connection. It was established out of a desire to listen and trace the subtle threads that weave together people, places, and traditions. In its early years, every piece of furniture she created was accompanied by a small notebook called "alma" (soul). This booklet contained reflections on the artisan, the inspiration behind the piece, and the cultural roots tied to the object. Some pages were intentionally left blank, inviting new owners to continue the story in their own way—transforming each item into not just a possession, but a shared narrative.
In 2019, Maria Fernanda met Kulikyrda Mehinaku at SP-Arte in São Paulo, sparking a meaningful connection centered on design and craftsmanship. Kulikyrda Mehinaku is a respected cultural leader and artist who plays a vital role in preserving and sharing the traditions of his people.
This initial exchange led to an invitation for Maria Fernanda to visit Kulikyrda’s village, Kaupüna, where she witnessed a women's ritual that underscored the importance of reciprocity in collaboration. In Kaupüna, she encountered a vibrant community of artisans and a rich, living system of knowledge.
Kulikyrda’s gesture was more than mere hospitality; it was an act of cultural openness, founded on trust and mutual respect. Together with Stive Mehinaku, an artisan and designer from Kaupüna, Maria Fernanda created the Xingu collection, which features basketry, furniture, and mats.
During her time in Mehinaku territory, Maria Fernanda learned from the women who weave with buriti palm. She realized that their craft serves as a bridge between memory and daily life, as well as between ancestral heritage and contemporary needs.
Colours of the Forest
As the exchange between the Mehinaku women and designer Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros deepened, new dimensions began to emerge — not only in form, but also in colour.
The Mehinaku already had a deep knowledge of natural pigments extracted from plants such as saffron, annatto, and genipap, traditionally used to dye buriti fibres and threads. Maria Fernanda's visit did not introduce this wisdom; instead, it opened a new chapter focused on exploring the untapped potential of other forest elements — bark, leaves, and roots — as sources of natural dye.
For Maria Fernanda, bringing cotton yarns dyed with natural pigments was more than a symbolic gesture — it was an invitation to experiment and collaborate. These naturally dyed yarns not only hinted at new aesthetic possibilities but also offered a practical path towards generating greater economic and creative autonomy within the community. When she arrived in Kaupüna, the vivid colours did more than delight the artisans’ eyes — they stirred curiosity and reflection, prompting the women to re-examine the colours already held within their environment. Surrounded by a landscape rich in tonal variation, they began to ask: what other hues might the forest quietly contain, waiting to be revealed?
To support this exploration, Maria Fernanda invited Maibe Maroccolo — founder of Mattricaria and a specialist in botanical dyes derived from Brazilian biomes — to first develop the colours in her studio and then lead workshops in the village, sharing her findings. Together, they collected natural elements from the environment and transformed them into colour through intuitive practices such as boiling and soaking.
Among the sources gathered were the roots of trees traditionally used to build the community's ocas (houses) — including pindaíba, copaíba, embira, and cinnamon. The result was a palette born of the forest — twelve shades created in harmony with the earth. This renewed exploration of natural dyeing strengthened their connection to the forest, expanded ancestral knowledge, and became an act of cultural affirmation — a way to listen more attentively to the quiet offerings of the land.
A Mehinaku man prepares for a traditional ceremony, his body adorned with symbolic painting made from natural pigments. Each line, colour, and feather represents cultural narratives, ancestral knowledge, and connection to the forest. Photo by Lucas Rosin.
The vibrant seeds of the urucum fruit — traditionally used for body paint and now rediscovered as a natural dye during the Mehinaku–Yankatu collaboration. Photo by Lucas Rosin.
A Mehinaku man applies urucum (annatto) pigment during a ritual. This natural dye, with its vivid red hue, holds protective, aesthetic, and spiritual meaning in Xingu culture. Photo by Lucas Rosin.
Mehinaku women in Kaupüna weave buriti palm fibres. Photo by Lucas Rosin.
Stive Mehinaku and Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros hold naturally dyed cotton yarns developed in collaboration with the Mehinaku women. Each colour represents the plants, knowledge, and stories of the Xingu Territory. Photo by Lucas Rosin.
Dyed threads hanging under a traditional thatched roof, displaying the vibrant natural colours created during the Kaupüna collaboration. Photo by Lucas Rosin.
A Mehinaku woman carefully lifts yarn from a natural dye bath during a collaborative workshop in Kaupüna. Photo by Lucas Rosin.
Naturally dyed cotton yarns are paired with their botanical sources and handwritten recipes — a process that reclaims ancestral knowledge and celebrates the ecological richness of the Xingu. Photo by Lucas Rosin.
The Exhibition as Dialogue
The knowledge shared, the materials transformed, and the stories woven between the Mehinaku and Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros take tangible form in the exhibition Xingu: Indigenous Reflections in Contemporary Design.
At the heart of the show, held at Museu A CASA in São Paulo, are the works of the Mehinaku people — hammocks that sway like forest canopies, mats that reflect the patterns of earth and water, and baskets and benches shaped by memory and ritual.
In harmony with these traditional pieces, new works emerge from the vibrant dialogue between the Mehinaku and Maria Fernanda, blurring the lines between “traditional” and “contemporary.”
The exhibition offers more than objects. It proposes another way of thinking about design — as a practice of care and connection, where each gesture sustains the delicate balance between people and place.
Basket made from buriti fibres and dyed with natural pigments derived from trees. Featured in the exhibition Xingu: Indigenous Reflections in Contemporary Design, this piece reflects the Mehinaku people's deep connection to their environment and material culture. Photo by ZZ Foto e Vídeo.
Installation view of the exhibition Xingu: Indigenous Reflections in Contemporary Designat Museu A CASA, São Paulo. The space brings together works by the Mehinaku people and contemporary pieces co-created with designer Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros. Photo by ZZ Foto e Vídeo.
Installation view of the exhibition Xingu: Indigenous Reflections in Contemporary Designat Museu A CASA, São Paulo. The space brings together works by the Mehinaku people and contemporary pieces co-created with designer Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros. Photo by ZZ Foto e Vídeo.
Featured
Mehinaku
Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros
Maibe Maroccolo
Photography
Courtesy of @yankatu
Photography by Lucas Rosin
Exhibition Photography ZZ Foto e Vídeo
Xingu: Indigenous Reflections in Contemporary Design
Realised through the Federal Law for Cultural Incentives (Lei Rouanet), Brazil
Support: Garland Magazine (@garlandmagazine), The Dealers (@_thedealers)
Partnership: Museu A CASA (@museuacasa)
Sponsorship: Sherwin-Williams Brasil (@sherwinwilliamsbr)
Realisation: Yankatu (@yankatu), Ministry of Culture – Brazil (@minc)
Concept, General Coordination & Curatorship: Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros @yankatu
Curatorship: Kulikyrda Mehinaku
Dye Research: Maibe Maroccolo @mattricaria
Executive Production: Angelo Miguel Lima @angelomigue
Local Production: Stive Mehinaku @stivemehinako
Visual Identity & Graphic Design: Maria Helena Emediato @lenaemediato
Texts: Angelo Miguel Lima @angelomigue
Editing & Proofreading: Fernanda Prates de Mendonça
Translation: Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros @yankatu
Exhibition Design: Daniela Karam Vieira @danielakaram
Installation: Rosemi Amorim da Silva @mirosmi
Filmmaking: Victor Affaro @victoraffaro
Video Editing: Fábio Mota @fabiomotaeditor & Rita Basile @basileproducoes
Subtitles, Sign Language & Audio description (video): Temporal Produtora de Acessibilidade e Comunicação
Photography: Lucas Rosin @lucasrosin
Photography Assistant: Carolina Magliari @_carolmagliari
Exhibition
Xingu: Indigenous Reflections in Contemporary Design
Exhibition venue: Museu A CASA, São Paulo, Brazil
Dates: 25 May – 20 October 2024
Words Nina Zulian