Blessed by receiving teachings from different Yawanawa spiritual leaders, Shaneihu was the last student of Pajé Yawarani, his grandfather, who shared with him the Yawanawa traditional knowledge.
He is now the chief of the Yawarani village. He followed the simplest and longest diets, including caiçuma (mama), Yuti (pepper), Nanê (jenipapo), Rarê Muka (sacred potato), Runua Kêmu (boa saliva).
A pioneer in the indigenous musical world with the use of the guitar, he released his third album “Waka” this year.
He has been playing different instruments for more than 15 years and many of the Yawanawa songs were composed by him.
He spends most of his time with Nani, at Yawarani village, where he receives small groups from Brazil and abroad for spiritual learning and healing.
Have a look at their website here.
Colloquium Presentation: 29 May 2024
Reconnecting with Ancestral Wisdom: A Conversation with the Yawanawá
Abstract
The Yawanawá come from the Acre region of Brazil, they are renowned for beautiful musical and powerful plant medicine tradition. They are now looking at ways of preserving their native language, once reduced to only fifty native speakers, now expanding again. The three we welcome here are Schaneihu, Yawatume, and Utxi. Shaneihu has been trained by his elders and proficient and providing the medicine of song. Yawatume is also trained by a pajé (shaman) and steeped in the tradition. Her husband, Utxi, is also trained in the musical and medicinal traditions. They will talk and perhaps sing about their medicines, including ‘Uni’, referred to in the lingua franca now as by the cover-all ‘Ayahuasca’ in the West, their relationship the land, and their history with a colonist past.