The territory of Makakari once spanned at least three large valleys in the Atlantic forest. Village elders remember how the forests provided food, medicine and construction materials. In addition to this, it serves as a habitat for Yamikpo, the central spiritual being of Makisakari’s beliefs.
“There was medicine in the forest for us,” Damasio explained. “When we had stomachaches, we feel better using bark from the tree. But now it’s just grass. The farmers burned everything.”
However, the remaining four maxakari reservations have been reduced to 6,434 hectares (15,900 acres) of pasture, but includes less than 17% of the original vegetation. Some experts believe that Atlantic forests are regionally extinct.
In his absence, many Macacari leaders have turned their eyes to planting. And find the ecological blueprints of the past in their musical traditions.
Singing organizes life in the village of Makisakari. Music, for example, is used to cure illnesses, teach history, and send practical instructions such as how to make bags and weave fishing nets.
“Songs bring together the whole thing,” said De Taggney, Hamhi Project Coordinator, a musicologist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. “People don’t compose songs. They have songs.”
He added that having a song means that he can take care of the mind that is considered to be the creator of the song.
Ancestor Songs also provide a highly detailed registration of local ecology. Grammar and Lexicon are 12 different musical canons, totaling around 360 hours of songs. The lyrics include hundreds of species of flora and fauna that are now extinct on the territory.
“We sing about everything: seedlings, bananas, ourselves,” explained Manuel Kelle, the village leader of Agua Boa. “Even dogs have songs in our religion.”
For example, one song lists 33 bees, some of which have no names in Brazilian Japanese, Portuguese. The lyrics provide information about bee behavior that many maxsakari have never witnessed in person.
“The song is a snapshot,” De Tagney said. “They are like photographs of every detail that exists in the Atlantic forest. They are the names of moments of relationships between insects, birds, plants, animals and leaves. All of these are registered.”
For Maxsakari, ritual songs also play an important role in helping forests regenerate. The song is a daily part of their work at Hermi Tree Nursery.
The nursery caretakers not only sing to the seeds when buried, but also make music as part of the usual rhythm of harvesting and cultivation. Caregivers are divided into groups, placing themselves around the nursery and singing in unison with each other. The lyrics of the song help participants remember the ecological knowledge of their ancestors.
And while some of the jobs at Hamhi are dedicated to planting fruit trees and other crops, project leaders see planting as the key to reducing the risk of fire in the area.
Since its founding in 2023, the Harmhi Project has planted over 60 hectares (148 acres) of fruit trees and 155 hectares (383 acres) of Atlantic Forest Vegetation. The target is a reforestation area that is almost twice its size.
Program participants also organized into interim fire brigades and used traditional methods such as planting fire vegetation seeds to create natural fire barriers.
“Singing helps the forest grow,” said Damasio, the village leader. “We help us and ask those who have died. They walk here to help us. We are calling for them to grow into the forest.”
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