A living culture: when materials evolve alongside craftsmanship

When I talk to you about the craftsmanship of Brazil's Indigenous peoples, you might think of seeds, plant fibers, wood, feathers, or natural pigments.

And that's quite natural. These materials play an important role in many handcrafted creations, especially those I select for Amazonikaa.

But Indigenous craftsmanship is not limited to materials sourced from nature.

Some artisans also use glass beads, nylon, and even PVC to make their jewelry and other creations.

This can sometimes be surprising and raise a question: is a piece of jewelry made with these materials less authentic than one made exclusively from natural materials?

To understand, we need to look beyond the material and focus on the people who work with it, their knowledge, and their expertise.

A culture is not limited to its traditional materials

Brazil's Indigenous peoples have remarkable knowledge of their territories and the natural resources that surround them.

Over generations, they have developed their own techniques for selecting, preparing, and transforming different materials.

But their cultures are not frozen in the past. They continue to live, be passed down, and evolve through generations, encounters, and societal changes.

Interactions with other populations have also brought new materials, new tools, and new creative possibilities.

When we talk about traditional craftsmanship, we sometimes imagine practices that have remained identical over time, as if the slightest change risked altering their authenticity.

Yet, a culture can evolve without losing its roots.

And in craftsmanship, this evolution is reflected in the choice of materials, the techniques used, and the way artisans combine them.

Seed beads (Miçanga): a cultural expression

In Brazil, they are called Miçanga.

This term refers to small beads used in many creations, especially glass seed beads.

These beads, which come in a wide variety of shades, sizes, and finishes, make it possible to create sometimes highly elaborate patterns.

Glass beads do not originate from Brazil. They arrived through exchanges with other populations and were gradually adopted by different Indigenous peoples.

And that is where their use becomes particularly interesting.

Because adopting a material from elsewhere does not necessarily mean adopting the way it was used in its place of origin.

Each people can develop its own techniques, color combinations, patterns, and uses.

There is therefore no single Indigenous way of working with Miçanga. Creations can vary greatly depending on the peoples and artisanal traditions.

A material from elsewhere can thus become the medium for a cultural expression unique to the people who use it.

Nylon is another example of this evolution.

In some creations, it is used as an assembly thread for seed beads and can be combined with natural fibers or other materials.

Its presence alone does not change the knowledge required to make a piece of jewelry.

The movements, techniques, choice of patterns, and compositional work remain at the heart of the creation.

Ultimately, the origin of a material is not enough to define the cultural value of the handcrafted work.

A Marubo necklace that invites us to look differently

Credit: Serviço de Proteção aos Índios - Acervo Museu do Índio / Funai - Brazil. Necklace attributed to the Marubo people.

In the collections of the Museu Nacional dos Povos Indígenas in Brazil, there is a necklace attributed to the Marubo people.

This necklace features a particularly interesting combination of materials: white PVC beads, beads made from the pit of the tucum palm fruit (Astrocaryum spp.), and a natural fiber cord.

Thus, a plant material, a natural fiber, and an industrial material meet in the same creation.

Why did the artisan choose PVC?

Was it for its color, its durability, or simply because the material was available?

The museum documentation tells us about the composition of the necklace, but does not specify the reasons for this choice.

It would therefore be incorrect to attribute an intention to the person who made it without having their account.

On the other hand, this necklace allows us to observe something very concrete: natural and industrial materials can be combined in an Indigenous handcrafted creation.

PVC does not need to be an ancestral material to be incorporated into an artisan's work.

And its use does not mean that the knowledge, techniques, or cultural references mobilized to make the necklace have disappeared.

Cultures evolve without necessarily losing their roots

Let's take an example that is more familiar to us.

Imagine a French person who decides to move to Brazil.

Over the years, they discover new eating habits, other ways of living, and new cultural references.

They may gradually adopt certain Brazilian habits while retaining practices they remain attached to.

Perhaps they will continue, for example, to eat their baguette with their meals simply because this habit is part of their history.

These new influences do not automatically make their original culture disappear.

They enrich their daily life and can coexist with the habits they wish to keep.

Of course, the history of Brazil's Indigenous peoples cannot be directly compared to that of a person who changes countries. Their historical, cultural, and territorial realities are unique.

But this example illustrates a simple principle: adopting new uses does not necessarily mean abandoning existing cultural references.

This reality also applies to materials, tools, and technologies.

Using a phone, having access to the Internet, or using industrial materials does not, in themselves, call into question the cultural identity of an Indigenous person.

Indigenous peoples have always participated in the evolution of their environment, each according to its history, territory, exchanges, and choices.

Their cultures are not museum pieces that should be preserved exactly as they are.

They are carried by women and men who possess their own knowledge, make their own decisions, pass down their expertise, and participate in the transformations of their societies.

Some practices continue, others evolve, and new ones may emerge.

That is also what a living culture is.

Jackson Marubo: giving PVC a new use

This evolution of materials takes on an even more concrete dimension when we speak directly with artisans.

This is particularly the case with Jackson Marubo, an artisan partner of AmazoniKaa.

Through my conversations with him, I discovered a way of working that I find particularly interesting.

Jackson explained to me that he collects PVC intended to be thrown away.

He cuts this material into small pieces, which he then transforms to incorporate into some of his creations, especially bracelets and necklaces.

PVC, which could have become waste, thus finds a new use in his handcrafted work.

What is interesting about his approach is not only the fact of salvaging a material.

It is also the way he manages to transform it and combine it with other elements to create his jewelry.

Industrial material does not replace the artisan's expertise. It becomes an additional resource with which he can work.

And this approach shows that handcrafted creation can also incorporate materials sourced from salvage.

However, it is important to clarify that this practice concerns Jackson Marubo, according to what he personally explained to me.

This does not mean that all Marubo artisans work this way, nor that all Marubo creations containing PVC are made from salvaged materials.

The necklace kept at the Museu Nacional dos Povos Indígenas, mentioned earlier, is another example of a combination of plant and industrial materials. But for this specific object, we know neither the origin of the PVC nor the reasons for its use.

These examples above all help us understand that natural and industrial materials do not necessarily constitute two opposing worlds in craftsmanship.

They can coexist, be combined, and be transformed according to the practices unique to each artisan.

Authenticity: is it really a question of materials?

When we discover a piece of handcrafted jewelry, it is quite common to first look at its composition.

A seed, a plant fiber, or a piece of wood immediately evokes nature and certain forms of traditional craftsmanship.

Conversely, glass, nylon, or PVC may seem further removed from this representation.

Yet, the cultural authenticity of a creation is not reduced to the list of materials that compose it.

A natural seed is not enough, on its own, to guarantee the authenticity of a piece of jewelry.

In the same way, the presence of glass, nylon, or PVC does not allow us to question its cultural origin.

By placing too much importance on materials, we sometimes risk forgetting the essential: the person who creates.

There are their movements, their knowledge, the techniques they master, what they have learned, and what they choose to transform or pass down.

There is also their personal vision, their creativity, and their freedom to work with the resources they wish to use.

Plant materials play an important role in the creations selected for Amazonikaa.

But valuing these materials does not mean opposing nature with other forms of handcrafted creation.

A piece of jewelry made with seeds can testify to remarkable expertise. A creation made with seed beads can also require great technical mastery and carry important cultural references.

And a piece of salvaged PVC can become, in the hands of an artisan like Jackson Marubo, a creative element in its own right.

In each of these cases, it is also human work that gives the object its value.

Expertise that is passed down and transformed

Through Amazonikaa, I select Brazilian handcrafted creations, but my work also allows me to meet the people who make them and better understand their ways of working.

These exchanges offer a broader view of craftsmanship, beyond the materials used.

They show that there are different ways of creating, passing down knowledge, and evolving practices.

Some artisans continue to work with seeds and plant fibers using techniques learned within their family or community.

Others incorporate seed beads, nylon, or salvaged materials. And sometimes, several of these elements are found in the same creation.

These practices are not mutually exclusive.

They testify to the diversity of choices, knowledge, and possibilities that exist within Brazil's Indigenous craftsmanship.

Authenticity should therefore not require artisans to reproduce only the practices of the past to meet an external image of their culture.

Expertise can be passed down while evolving. Materials can change, new techniques can emerge, and others can continue to be practiced.

It is the peoples and the artisans themselves who bring this knowledge to life and choose how to evolve it.

Ultimately, discovering a piece of handcrafted jewelry is also discovering the person who made it, the knowledge they mobilize, and the choices that accompany its creation.

Materials are part of this discovery, but they only represent one dimension of it.

A living culture is not defined by what remains unchanged, but by its ability to adapt to change while preserving its roots.

It is this human and cultural diversity that I wish to promote through Amazonikaa.