Kambebas

At the start of colonial times, the Kambebas (or Omágua) were divided into two groups; the Omágua-Yetê, based where Ecuador is today, and the ‘La Gran Omágua’, spreading over an area of 700 km² of forest, from the River Amazon to the border with Peru.

Until the 17th century, the floodplains of the River Amazon were completely inhabited by the Kambebas. They were spotted by travellers, who were impressed not only by their numbers, but also by their social organisation and culture. Many colonial travellers noted their more advanced culture; they had an organised leadership and structure that the whole tribe followed and obeyed. They also wore hand-made clothes, very different from other indigenous people in the Amazon, who usually appeared naked. These clothes were neatly sewn and painted and were also sold further afield. In addition, they produced some impressive glazed ceramics and were responsible for teaching such skills to other groups. Colonists considered the Kambebas to be more ‘civilised’ too since their social structure was very similar to that of the Europeans.

During colonial times, the Amazon was seen as an attractive region for the extraction of natural resources. The Portuguese soon also started a campaign to extract medicinal plants, the ‘drogas do sertão’. The indigenous people were used as labour/semi-slaves.

By the mid-18th century, many tribes had been completely wiped out, run away into the forest or escaped to small Portuguese villages.

Thus, during colonial times, the Kambebas not just suffered a decline in population, but also strong cultural and social transformations.

After the first real indigenous political laws were introduced in the 1970s in Brazil, some previously dispersed indigenous cultures started to gather again as tribes along the River Amazon.

During the 1980s, there were several indigenous gatherings throughout the Amazon region and, as a result, the Kambebas began a process of cultural and ethnic reaffirmation.

Source: Instituto Socio Ambiental (ISA)/Brazil and ‘Ay Kakyri Tama – Eu moro na cidade‘ by Márcia Wayna Kambeba.