The Waura people of Cuiabá, in the Upper Xingu region of Brazil, are demanding that the area around the sacred site of Kamukuaka's Cavern be incorporated into their legal territories. The cavern figures largely in Waura cosmology, as a site associated with the creation of their universe. The official demarcation of their territories does notinclude this sacred place, which the Waura have not been able to visit in three decades due to a conflict with local ranchers. Estevao Taukane, the president of the Federation of Indigenous Peoples of Mato Grosso, commented, “It is as if we lost a part of our bodies and souls,” adding, “These sites are like umbilical cords linking us to our spirituality.” The Waura hope to manage the site under any new arrangement, in order to ensure its preservation.
