Brazil's Indigenous People Hail Return Of Sacred Cloak

With the beating of drums and pipes filled with medicinal herbs, the Tupinamba people of Brazil are counting down the final hours of a 335-year wait for the official return of a sacred cloak taken in colonial times, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The cloak's return is part of a push by President Lula's leftist government to better support Brazil's Indigenous people, who are also demanding territorial demarcation. I Photo: Vassil Wikimedia Commons

The highly symbolic artifact, held at the National Museum of Denmark since 1689, will be presented in Rio de Janeiro in a ceremony to be attended by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The return of the ceremonial cloak is part of diplomatic efforts by Brazil's government to recover other Indigenous objects from museums in France, Japan, and elsewhere.

Measuring just under 1.8 meters (6 feet) high and featuring red feathers of the scarlet ibis bird, the cloak arrived back in Rio in early July, where it is being stored at the national museum.

It is not known how the cloak left Brazil, though experts believe it was first made in the mid-16th century, when the country was under Portuguese colonization.

Its return is part of a push by President Lula's leftist government to better support Brazil's Indigenous people, who are also demanding territorial demarcation.

The mantle "is our father and our mother. Our ancestors say that when they (the Europeans) took it away, our village was left without a north," said Sussu Arana Morubyxada Tupinamba, one of those camping near the museum, to AFP.

"Now we have a direction again: the demarcation of our territory by the Brazilian state," added the Indigenous chief.