The Wajapi are indigenous to the northern Amazonian region of the Tupi-Guarani cultural and linguistic group. There are some 580 Wajapi living in 40 villages on a specially designated territory in the state of Amapá.
The Wajapi adorn themselves and their objects with geometric motifs, using vegetable dyes. These designs are known as kusiwa, and they are made from red vegetable dyes extracted from the roucou plant mixed with scented resins. The Wajapi consider that no one can attain these skills before they reach the age of forty. They commonly represent jaguars, butterflies, fish, and anacondas.
Kusiwa's are based on a rich corpus of myths and represent the creation of humankind. A close relation to Amerindian oral traditions, this body art combines social, cultural, aesthetic, religious, and metaphysical meanings. Indeed, kusiwa forms the basis of Wajapi society, and it possesses an ancient significance that extends far beyond its role as a graphic art form. This coded repertory of traditional knowledge is forever evolving as indigenous artists continually re-work the motifs and generate new patterns.
The natives have evolved a unique system of communication that combines verbal and graphic components to reflect their worldview and give them away to pass on knowledge about community life. The language spoken by the Wajãpi belongs to the Tupi-Guarani family. The Emerillon of the Oiapoc river is the only representative of this linguistic family in this area. These days, knowledge of Portuguese is growing among the Wajapi: in all villages, women and children speak little of it, although they understand most of the dialogues.
The Wayampi were a part of the great Wayana Indian commercial links that extended from the Amapari river in Brazil to the Tapanahoni river in Surinam. The Wayampi traded cotton thread, hunting dogs, and feather crowns mainly for tools. Though the network has been disrupted by national boundaries, it is still alive between various Wayampi groups.
Since the late 1970s Western goods have replaced local products, with the exception of baskets and cotton-woven hammocks. Items such as ammunition, fishhooks, pans, and glass beads are increasingly traded.
Although the Wajapi lives on their territory, their traditional lifestyles are in danger of losing their symbolic significance. A loss of this symbolic meaning would drastically alter the social and cosmological reference points of the community. The principal threat stems from the younger generation's disinterest in traditional lifestyles and the decreasing number of Wajapi practicing the kusiwa repertoire. Today this network has been disrupted by increased control of national borders, though it remains within various Wayampi groups