Nukini Rapé

Their name is tied to the jaguar (onça) — the animal sits at the root of how they describe their own origin, and one of their clans is the Inubakëvu, the “jaguar people.” It’s why they’re popularly called the Povo da Onça.

On the Terra Indígena Nukini in the municipality of Mâncio Lima, in the far south-west of Acre — settled along the Rio Môa and its igarapés, right beside the Serra do Divisor National Park and close to the Peruvian border.

Around 726 people at the last health-service count (Siasi/Sesai, 2020), living across several villages on the Môa.

It belongs to the Pano family, but only a few Nukini still speak it fluently — transmission was broken when speakers were ridiculed and discriminated against, leaving younger generations Portuguese-speaking. The community is now working to revive it through the village school.

They were drawn into the rubber estates (seringais) as tappers and professional hunters under an exploitative patron system. The forced labour and pressure of that era suppressed their language and much of their ceremonial life — the loss they are now working to reverse.

Among the Nukini, rapé (hapé) is documented as a hunter’s medicine — worked with to steady and orient the hunter in the forest. It sits alongside their other living traditions: the mariri dance, and body-paint designs called kenê made with urucum and jenipapo.

Yes — we buy directly from the makers, so the money reaches the families and villages of the Môa rather than a middleman. That direct link helps fund the land, language and culture they’re working to keep.