The Enawene Nawe are expert fishermen. In the dry season they catch fish using spears or by stunning them with a poison made from the juice of a forest vine.

In the wet season they build intricate wooden dams across rivers to trap large quantities of fish. They spend several months camped in the forest, smoking the caught fish in specially built houses and then sending them back to the village by canoe.

During the fishing season, Enawene Nawe men build wooden dams to catch fish, Brazil. © Fiona Watson/Survival

Enawene Nawe men preserve fish. © Fiona Watson/Survival

The Indians’ most important ritual is known as Yãkwa, a four month long exchange of food between humans and spirits. When the men and boys arrive back from the fishing camps, food is ritually exchanged with the spirit world in elaborate ceremonies.

Feather headdresses and special costumes are worn, and men play flutes to accompany people while they chant and dance around open fires in the central square.

Enawene Nawe men perform the Yãkwa ritual, a four-month exchange of food between humans and the ancestral spirits, accompanied by dancing and chanting to the sound of flutes, Brazil. © Fiona Watson/Survival

Honey gathering is celebrated in Keteoko, the honey feast, when men collect large amounts of wild honey in the forest and hide it on their return to the village, only revealing it when the women start to dance.