The project, called Kupixawa Cultural Chico Curumim (provisional name), aims to promote the maintenance of  the Movement of Huni Kuin Artists (MAHKU) activities in the following ways: offering the physical space and conditions for traditional festivals and other educational and cultural activities. In 2021, the Chico Curumim village — of which Isaías Sales Ibã is chief and where several artists of the indigenous collective — had its plantations and houses looted and destroyed, directly affecting the survival and living conditions of the affected families.

With this in mind, we decided to focus our project on the construction of a Kupixawa in the Chico Curumim Village. It is a traditional Huni Kuin building with multiple uses and activities related to community life: Kupixawa is a large collective dwelling where visitors are welcomed (in non-COVID times); there are parties and ceremonies; it functions as a kitchen/restaurant and a shared space in the community. There will also be workshops organized by MAHKU of traditional music and chants, and artistic perception, for example. In addition, in order to preserve health and improve the hygiene conditions of the site, next to the Kupixawa will be built a dry bathroom for the use of community residents and visitors.

With a website for Kupixawa Cultural Chico Curumim, videos and photos of the construction experience and after the activities carried out there will be shared, in addition to the work of the Huni Kuin Artists Movement. On the site there will be a link for donations / support to the community and to sell products produced by MAHKU and the village community of various artisan products. The profits will be distributed in order to reward the artists and allocate funds for the construction, in the second stage of the project of a multimedia library, a digital Huni Kuin archive that also allows social interaction for its users with internet enabled to produce and share multimedia content in Hatxa Kuin. With this effort consolidating a visual identity for it and the posts will assist with engaging young people in activities related to the Huni Kuin culture. In fact, the appropriation of technologies such as audiovisual and internet tools is a characteristic of ibã and MAHKU’s work.

For the inauguration of Kupixawa, Ibã and a group of volunteers from the village will organize a live show showing some activities carried out and how the space favors community life and the preservation of Huni Kuin culture and traditions. The Kupixawa has low maintenance cost and the community of Chico Curumim village will decide on the uses of the space throughout the year according to their needs. Thus, Kupixawa Cultural Chico Curumim will be used continuously and will benefit the entire community of the village.