In demarcation campaign reports, the role of leaders from the Xingu tends to be underplayed. This omission is reflected in documents that survive from that time. Narru Kuikuro, Kanato Yawalapiti, Prepori Kaiabi, and many other people who were central to the negotiation between people of the Xingu and non-indigenous representatives, are rarely identified.

Here we have brought together portraits of some of these negotiators along with testimonies conceded to journalist Washington Novaes, as part of a TV documentary series that covers three decades of Xingu history.

In recent years, more women have come to occupy spaces that had traditionally been reserved for men, cultivating their own approaches to leadership. The photographer Sitah has portrayed some of them here at the invitation of ATIX Woman, the branch of the association connected to the Xingu Women’s Movement.