Not too long ago, I heard about a
delegation of leaders from a village
located in the state of Acre,
Brazil.
They were traveling in the United
States to spread a message that the
Amazon, their home, is being
destroyed.
The impact of this destruction
isn't just local.
It threatens everything.
People, plants, animals, insects,
trees, disrupting entire
weather patterns.
This traveling delegation is part of
an indigenous group called the
Noke Koi.
And they are responding to mounting
interest around ayahuasca,
this psychoactive plant brew that
they call Uni.
The Noke Koi mostly welcome
this attention, but only if
it's coupled with a commitment to
saving the place where these
mind-altering plants grow,
the tropical forests of South
America.
This summer, I had the chance to
speak with members of the Noke Koi
delegation, the chief, the group's
medicine man, and some musicians.
They were making their way to a
psychedelics conference in Denver.
And today, we are bringing
that conversation to you.
I'm Arielle Duhaime-Ross,
and this is Altered States.
So to start, can I just have you
introduce yourself?
Olá, bom dia a todos.
Meu nome é Yamano
Manawa, eu sou
cacique geral.
Hello, good morning everyone.
My name is Yama Nomanawa.
I'm the chief of the Nomanawa
village. I'm from Acre, Brazil.
My role as a leader is to care
for my people and also care for our
land. Care for the forests,
the animals, the rivers,
care for our wisdom and our native
plants. That is the role of a
leader, to protect what's around us.
Using our Noke Koi tradition.
Can you talk about the decision
to share Unі with foreigners?
A minha decisão própria,
ou seja, com o povo,
The decision is my own on behalf of
my people, since I'm their chief.
From the middle of the forest, and
with our sacred medicine uni,
we do our work, we sing, we
pray along with our whole family,
but a new moment has come.
I think this is a new time, a
time for spirits to ally,
a time to speak or announce
to the world that this medicine
exists.
The forest exists, the sacred
knowledge exists.
This is the moment to bring the
knowledge of the forest to the rest
of the world.
We need to learn how to respect the
earth, respect the spirit of
the forest, the spirit of
each medicine and its origins
and the origin of the people.
While this medicine has been talked
about in many parts of the world,
the truth has been left behind.
What is the truth?
Many people work with this medicine
but do not understand the roots
of the spirit of the medicine,
the richness of the medicine.
My message wherever I go in the
world, inside or outside the
village, in the city, anywhere
I go is sharing this sacred wisdom
with people so we can live well,
so we can unite.
We observe things happening around
the world and we never had the
opportunity to get out and share our
knowledge and explain to others
what is happening in Brazil, in
Acre, in our villages.
So I made the decision to share the
wisdom we received in the forest.
Illegal logging has been blamed for
turning plush rainforest into
a patchwork of trees and farmland.
Brazil loses millions of acres of
rainforest every year to illegal
logging, mining, and also to
agricultural expansion.
What does that look like from the
vantage point of your village?
Como eu vejo
aquecimento da terra.
I see the warming of the earth.
The rivers getting dry every year.
The Amazon has had its worst
forest fires in two decades.
More than sixty-two thousand square
kilometers have been thrown
Os peixes vão embora, os peixes
morrem.
The fish leave or die.
Fruit is disappearing from the
forest or are coming off season.
In dry seasons no one
is able to eat properly because the
fish are gone.
Brazil's government is rolling back
environmental protections in a
massive chunk of the Amazon range
Não tem mais água.
Not enough water.
For instance, last year the
Taori River had half of
its normal water level.
Three years ago there were lots of
fish and the river was deeper.
I decided to travel and share
this knowledge because the forest is
being destroyed.
This is the Cachoeira Seca
Indigenous Reserve, where
deforestation is strictly
prohibited.
But illegal loggers and ranchers
have cleared forest and destroyed
unique flora.
Então nas minhas viagens eu vejo.
In my travels I see other indigenous
land where standing forests still
exist.
Beyond indigenous land, there are
only farms, cattle, soy
plantations.
There are no more medicines,
no more standing forests.
We see only black smoke.
This is why I left my village and I
am here to share this wisdom.
Então eu faço pergunta pra
mim mesmo.
I always ask myself why large
companies don't recognize indigenous
peoples, don't respect the forest,
and don't help minimize sickness.
In order to create this unity with
other people, I had to leave my
village, bring this knowledge out
into the world and hope other people
are able to help the forest and
the planet.
We live in a land that does not
belong to us, the land that holds
the graves of our great Romayas,
the great masters of medicine,
masters of music and healing.
They were buried in that region, and
today it is a state reserve.
Still, we protect that forest
and the medicine and the lineage of
the Noke Koi people.
I'm working on behalf of future
generations.
I think of the children.
In my journey here, I'm speaking and
asking people because Cacique Yama
needs help to at least
have a small piece of our
ancestral land returned to us
so we can continue our prayers
for humanity and the world and
protect the spirit of our masters.
Protect the ancestral burials.
It is going to take a long time.
Even if we do not get our land back
to the Nomanawa clan, our
clan, our prayer, our
fight, our voice, the scream
of the earth, the scream of the
Amazon forest will always be
alive in future generations.
You talk about taking care of the
forest and I'm wondering what does
that look like and what challenges
do you encounter when you're trying
to go about that?
Proteger a floresta é
não derrubar uma árvore,
não destruir árvores.
Então isso significa
proteger a floresta.
Protecting the forest simply means
not cutting the tree, not toppling
the tree, not destroying the
tree.
That is protecting the forest.
I see the life of the native
people of the forest, and I also
see the people that do not respect
the forest.
Our wisdom is about caring
for the forest, for the sacred
plants, for our tradition.
Life is different in the forest.
We have different traditions,
different customs, different
languages.
We enjoy this light, this land,
this knowledge, this connection to
nature.
Without the rainforest, we
are nothing.
The life of the indigenous peoples
is nothing.
The forest protects us,
and we must protect the
standing forest.
Life is in nature.
In our region in Acre, Brazil,
the forest that still stands
protects us, but the forest has been
toppled.
What happens is this the earth
warms, heats up a lot,
then come all types of diseases,
all because humans are not
respecting the forest.
To me, this is very bad.
We have to do something.
If we keep destroying the forest,
we'll lose the power of the earth
and lose our culture, our
medicine.
These medicines are important
and they are abundant in the
middle of the forest.
You mentioned that you will lose
your traditional medicines if your
forests aren't protected.
Which medicines are you referring
to?
A medicina, quando
eu falo da medicina,
incluindo tudo.
When I speak about medicine, I'm
speaking about everything like
ayahuasca, kambo or sananga
and other types of sacred herbs that
exist in the forest.
When humans destroy the forest,
we lose all these.
In my language, ayahuasca is
called uni.
The word comes from the union of
the people, of the family, of
a nation.
Since our first generation, inside
the uni journey, we learn
to connect with the earth spirit,
the forest spirit, to
all the medicines, all the
animals and everything around
us.
We take this medicine, we enter
its power, travel to
the spiritual world, and we
see what is hurting this person, and
we're able to help heal the
body and save the family.
So it is through the use of this
medicine that we learn respect
and get our education in the middle
of the forest.
I myself was born, raised
and educated inside this
school of the spirit.
My role is to defend and protect
this sacred medicine.
A lot of people say that uni is
a drug, but for us,
it is not a drug, it's medicine.
Cacique, I want to ask this question
directly to Sheka Nominawa, who's
also here with you.
And from what I understand, we're
gonna need your help to translate
from his tribal language, Noke Vana,
to Portuguese.
So, Shekah you're the healer in your
village. Some would call you the
forest doctor or the pajé.
What does it mean to be a healer
within this community?
Bom é
sobre a cura
do Pajé
é como o papel
do Pajé.
Não é qualquer pessoa.
Not everyone can be a pajé.
The pajé is chosen by the
spirit.
He did not have an interest in
being a pajé.
He didn't think of it or dream
of it. He did not hope
for it.
One day he was hunting in the
forest and he came across a large
serpent.
At that moment, he knew what he was
going to become.
During this meeting, the serpent
gave him the power, and that's
when he became the pajé.
Now he looks after the people,
the family.
The job of the pajé is to take
the medicine and travel
within the person's body and
find the sickness.
The pajé identifies
the type of the suffering, be it a
headache or a fever.
Then through this spirit, he
decides how and what to do to
take away the pain.
What type of prayer to use, how
to begin, how to see
where in the spirit the person is
suffering, how the spirit
is being attacked.
So this is the work of the pajé.
I do want to ask you about uni
a little bit. Again, this is for the
pajé.
Are there Noke Koi people who don't
take uni?
And how often do people in
your community consume uni?
How often do you advise them to
consume it?
Quando é família
a Neika se vê aqui conhecimento.
In our region, near the Tawari
River, our entire Nomanawa
family takes the medicine.
A ten year old child will
already start taking the medicine.
We will take it three times
a week.
That's because it's our tradition,
it's our culture.
We cannot lose our culture.
It is our sacred path.
Like I said, it is a school
and a school cannot close.
I want to turn back to you again,
Cacique Yama Nomanawa.
How old were you the first time that
you tried Uni?
Primeiramente, dentro da
minha tradição,
First in our tradition, starting
when we are children, our parents
pass along the knowledge.
They explain how uni works so
we can enter this tradition.
My father and mother gave me more
knowledge.
They showed me how to be part of
this school when I was twelve or
thirteen years old.
That's when I began taking the
medicine.
My first cup of the medicine showed
me how the Noke Koi people came to
be, how I can live in the middle
of the forest, and how I can
lead my people, connect with
the spirit of the animals
and the spirit of the water.
It showed me how to organize the
people and ally with other brothers,
indigenous and non indigenous,
and how to access the power to pray,
to sing the tiding day of the
Noke Koi people, counsel
the people, and enter the world of
Saite and enter the realm of
the healing spirit.
These experiences and this knowledge
that come to us come from the stars.
The light that descends powerfully
into our minds and heart energizes
our bodies.
I know that music is an integral
part of ayahuasca ceremonies
in your culture and you
have musicians here today in the
studio with you.
I want to hear some of their music,
but first can you tell me what role
music plays exactly in your culture
and and what the songs are about?
É, o papel da música,
na verdade, é o trabalho dos tianás.
The role of the music is in fact the
real work of the Txanãs or
musicians.
The songs they sing during
ceremonies are spirit songs.
The Txanãs enter the force of
the medicine, travel through the
spirit world, they call for
it and listen to the music of the
stars.
Through music, the Txanãs illuminate
the path to people.
Through music, they bring images,
colors, and flowers from the stars.
They bring joy into people's hearts.
They bring divine light to the
body and heart.
There are several types of music.
Some are just about joy, some
are about journeys, some are about
traveling through the spirit world.
Some of these we call saités.
These are about fighting illness.
They tap into the power of the
medicine and guide people
in connecting to the stars and
touch the great spirit,
understand the path, and connect
with life, health, union.
That's the role of the music.
We sing these songs while reaching
for the spirits.
In truth, the music we sing during
ceremonies often have no
translation.
They are in the spirit languages.
We simply mimic the language
spoken by the spirit.
You cannot translate it.
It is the language of the people
that live connected to the stars.
It's a language of the spirits
who take away illness, cleanse
our bodies, minds, and hearts.
These spirits sing in the power
of the medicine.
When would you use this song during
a ceremony?
É, a música cantada na
cerimônia não é...
não tem horário, não tem...
There's no right moment in the
ceremony for singing.
It is dependent on the spirit
who comes to us.
We may be singing
saités, tirindês or a Txanãs song.
It depends on the presence of the
Spirit. We don't choose a time
or the right moment to sing.
So part of sharing uni
means that foreigners are coming to
Acre and to your
village.
For the people who come to your
village, what are they typically
seeking?
A pessoa precisa de
cura.
People need healing.
They come and meet village pajés,
see their rituals and community, and
these people are feeling ill,
headaches, body aches, aches
of the heart, feeling the
loss of their path, and it
is a sacred moment, actually
a sacred meeting, where
they're able to find a way to
healing, open their eyes,
connect to the sacred Samauna
trees, connect with our ancestral
spirits who are the strong pajés
buried there.
The country we have worked with,
especially the Nomanawa, is
the United States.
It's a small group, but to tell you
the truth, our medicine man heals
many kinds of illnesses.
He is able to take away, remove,
and clean the way to get to
the place of real healing,
the root of the culture,
the root of the cure.
When we return, a look at how Chief
Yama Nomonawa is teaming up
with other indigenous groups to
advocate for the protection of the
Noke Koi as well
as the rainforest.
Stick around.
Welcome back to Altered States, I'm
Arielle Duhaime-Ross.
I've been talking to Cacique Yama
Nomonawa, the chief of the Noke Koi,
an indigenous group from Brazil.
And before the break, we were
discussing how the Noke Koi began
inviting foreigners to drink
ayahuasca in their village.
But the international interest in
ayahuasca has created new
problems as well for the Noke Koi
and other indigenous groups.
And earlier this year, the Noke Koi
leadership participated in the fifth
annual Indigenous Ayahuasca
Conference in Brazil.
E hoje é o começo
de uma nova era.
It brought thirty four different
indigenous groups together to focus
on quote the defense of ancestral
knowledge about ayahuasca and
self determination of indigenous
people. This is a recording of a
speech given at that conference.
Nossos governantes, as leis
do mundo.
At the fifth annual Indigenous
Conference in Brazil, you, along
with dozens of other indigenous
groups, signed a letter.
Can you tell me what this letter was
about and why it's important?
Primeira vez também que eu
participei dessa conferência, a
quinta conferência de Ayahuasca.
This was the first time I
participated in a conference about
ayahuasca, and this was
about how we wanted the medicine to
be used.
Today the medicine is not being
respected.
The medicine is being sold and
transported all over the world.
Another thing that was agreed upon
amongst all the indigenous leaders,
we do not want inexperienced
people without knowledge of the
medicine who do not know the spirit
of the plant to work with the
medicine.
No one can work with it in this
manner.
Today we ask many people
in federal government and even
at the United Nations, why
the indigenous peoples are not
allowed to work with our own
medicines, which is so sacred,
a natural remedy that has
the power to heal humanity.
Why we do not have the right
to travel with our own medicine?
We do not even have the right to
perform a ceremony, not
even speak about the medicine.
So the letter contains a call
for changing the law and creating
a way for us to be able to work
freely with the medicine.
This is a major concern of the
indigenous leaders who participated
in the fifth ayahuasca conference.
Today our medicine is being sold
at stores or other commercial
spaces, and that is
unacceptable.
We have even heard of
ayahuasca vape pens,
ayahuasca in microdosing.
This is wrong.
Ayahuasca is to be used in
ceremonies.
In this letter from the indigenous
leaders, there's a portion
that states a desire to reject
all forms of global
commercialization of ayahuasca.
What does that mean to you?
É, isso é uma das grandes
preocupações.
This is definitely one of our major
concerns.
Because the right thing to do before
commercializing would be to consult
with the leaders of the peoples
who have this medicine.
If you do not consult with the
indigenous guardians of the
medicine, non-indigenous
people who keep on exploiting the
plant, while the ones who guard
and know the medicine are kept
away.
While non-indigenous people build
their churches and sacred spaces
where they misuse the medicine,
they use the medicine to start
organizations and they forget the
natives.
Forget the origins of the plant
and ignore the indigenous population
who own the medicine.
Many pajés, many villages,
many indigenous peoples are
living in scarcity.
There are villages lacking clean
water.
There are families needing homes.
The indigenous people are always
forgotten.
Still, people come, they
take our culture, they take our
medicine, and they forget our
people.
The ayahuasca medicine cannot
be served by anyone.
Ayahuasca is to be served by
pajés, by caciques,
but the great Txanãs, who are
the ones who know the medicine.
If you don't have the wisdom to work
with this medicine, it's best
not to do it.
It is dangerous to the participants
and dangerous to the people who are
serving the medicine.
This medicine is to heal,
not for fun.
Cacique Yama Nomanawa, thank you so
much for coming here today and
telling me about your culture and
about Uni to the pajés
as well. Please I I'd love if you
could transmit my thank yous.
Queria agradecer a todos
vocês.
Agradecendo mais uma vez ao
grande espírito por me trazido até
aqui.
I want to say thank you to all of
you and thank you to the great
spirit for bringing me here.
Altered States is a production of
the UC Berkeley Center for the
Science of Psychedelics and PRX.
Cassady Rosenblum contributed
reporting to this episode.
Special thanks to Luna Ruckmaney.
Voice acting by Andre Lacerda.
Adizah Eghan is our senior editor.
Our executive editor is
Malia Wollan. Jennie Cataldo
is our senior producer.
Our researcher is Cassady Rosenblum.
Our associate producer is Jade Abdul
Malik.
Our audio engineers are Terrence
Bernardo and Jennie Cataldo.
Fact checking by Graham Haysha.
Our executive producers are
Malia Wollan and Jocelyn Gonzales.
And our project manager is Edwin
Ochoa.
Our theme music is by Thao Nguyen
and Nate Brenner.
I'm your host, Arielle Duhaime-Ross.
Be sure to subscribe, rate, and
review Altered States wherever you
get your podcasts.
We'll be back next week.
Most well-known psychedelics remain
illegal around the world, including
the United States, where it is a
criminal offense to manufacture,
possess, dispense, or supply most
psychedelics, with few exceptions.
Altered States does not recommend
or encourage the use of psychedelics
or offer instructions in their use.