Bio
Akari is a renowned musician, storyteller and leader of the Wauja community. He lives in Piyulaga, the main Wauja village in the Xingu Indigenous Territory, situated in the southernmost part of the Amazon basin, in Mato Grosso, Brazil.
Akari seeks to preserve and share the traditional music of the Wauja, participating in teaching activities in villages where the musical knowledge is almost extinct. He currently works with Indigenous Association Tulukai on Project Wauja Onapa (Wauja Songs), teaching and documenting the songs that form an integral part of the rituals and practices of Wauja culture. An active member of the community, Akari collaborates in projects of indigenous cultural conservancy, including work with Factum Foundation on the documentation and conservation of the Kamukuwaká cave – a sacred site lying outside Xingu’s demarcated territory.
In 2018, Akari hosted a residency funded by the British Council, which enabled British musician Nathaniel Robin Mann to stay in Piyulaga, to record Akari singing and learn about the Wauja musical tradition. During the residency, Akari declared his interest in releasing a CD:
“My father was a singer and he died when I was only 14. He took his songs with him. When I grew up I decided to rescue the songs that my father sang and that were recorded on a CD (recordings by anthropologist Emi Ireland). I learned from the CD. Now I thought to myself – I’ll do as my father did. I’ve been looking for support to record a CD for a while. That’s my dream…
“I think that sharing traditional Wauja music is important because a lot of people haven’t learned about the Waurá people. So that’s why I thought about sharing it. If we want to bring some other person from abroad to know our culture, there will be nothing to tell. There will be no music. That’s why it is important for us to record our music on a CD.”
