Indigenous chants and the rattle of maracas are resounding in a Rio de Janeiro park, where Brazil’s Tupinambá people gathered to celebrate the homecoming of a sacred cloak absent for some 380 years. Made of feathers from the scarlet ibis, the artifact from northeastern Brazil resided in Copenhagen until the Danish National Museum donated the cloak to its Brazilian counterpart. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara attended a ceremony at Brazil’s National Museum atop a hill in the Boa Vista Park. Celebrations to welcome the cloak have been underway since last week.
