Sacred Cloak Returned to Brazil by Danish Museum

A sacred cloak that had been within the holdings of the Nationwide Museum of Denmark for greater than 300 years was returned to Indigenous leaders in Brazil, reported the BBC.

The almost six-foot-long cloak was constructed utilizing 4,000 scarlet ibis feathers. It was taken from the Tupinambá folks throughout Portuguese colonial rule. Since 1698, it has been on show in Copenhagen.

The cloak was unveiled at an official ceremony in Rio de Janeiro that was attended by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and indigenous leaders, in addition to 200 Tupinambá folks.

“I felt unhappiness and pleasure. A combination between being born and dying,” Yakuy Tupinambá, who traveled greater than 745 miles by bus, informed AFP.

“Our ancestors say that once they [the Europeans] took it away, our village was left and not using a north,” indigenous chief Sussu Arana Morubyxada Tupinambá added.

There are different sacred Tupinambá capes of this sort nonetheless on show throughout Europe believed to this point again to the sixteenth century.

Although the Brazilian president has pledged to acknowledge indigenous land reserves, the Tupinambás’ territory has but to be formally demarcated by the federal government. Based on the Tupinambás, the territory has been overrun by agriculture and mining companies.