Hapé and Music with Chief Iskukua Yawanawa Miami

An evening of music, chant, and cultural exchange centers Indigenous knowledge and living tradition through the presence of Yawanawa leaders from the Brazilian Amazon. Presented as an intimate gathering, the program offers an opportunity to experience ceremonial songs and spiritual practices rooted in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions.

Led by Chief Iskukua Yawanawa and his daughter Yawakanah Yawanawa, the evening features ancestral chants and music passed down through generations of the Yawanawa people, whose territory along the Gregório River in Acre has remained largely preserved. The Yawanawa are known for their deep ecological knowledge, spiritual cosmology and a contemporary cultural revival that blends traditional vocal practices with instruments such as flutes, drums and guitars. In recent decades, Yawanawa leaders have shared this evolving musical tradition internationally as a way of sustaining culture while engaging the wider world on their own terms.

Chief Iskukua Yawanawa is a respected spiritual guide and cultural guardian, devoted to preserving sacred songs, prayers and ceremonial knowledge learned through lifelong initiation in the forest. Joining him is Yawakanah Yawanawa, a young singer and cultural bearer making her first journey to North America, whose voice reflects the continuity of Yawanawa traditions carried forward by the next generation.

Hapé and Music with Chief Iskukua Yawanawa takes place Wednesday, January 14 at Plant the Future in Little River, presented by Giselle World.