Kamukuwaká- A Call of the Forest

Kamukuwaká –A Call of the Forest is a 15-minute virtual reality experience that transports the audience to the Xingu Indigenous Territory in Brazil, allowing them to experience the culture of the Wauja people and reflect on the climate emergency through the lens of Indigenous ancestry.

The work is directed by Indigenous photographer and filmmaker Piratá Waurá (Xingu), and co-directed by award-winning director Francisco Almendra (RJ/Studio KWO). It combines 360° footage and 3D scanning techniques to recreate the Ulupuwene village and the Sacred Cave of Kamukuwaká – where the Xingu cosmology is inscribed in ancient drawings. The audience is invited to participate in the story within interactive environments, where they can handle objects with their hands and even use their arms to fly into space, guided by a shaman (pajé).

Produced by Studio Kwo, one of the pioneers of virtual reality in Brazil, and People’s Palace Projects, the experience offers an intimate immersion into chants, dances, rituals, and dreams. It is guided by the narration of Indigenous activist and educator Shirley Krenak in Portuguese (by Andrew Purcell in English), while simultaneously revealing the devastation of the Amazon and the impacts of agribusiness in the region.

In November 2025, the work was presented at COP30 – the UN Climate Change Conference – in Belém, Pará.

Reflecting the Wauja wisdom, Kamukuwaká – A Call of the Forest reminds us that we are not separate from Nature: we are part of it. Reconnecting with our surroundings and looking after them are the first steps toward taking action for the preservation of the planet — starting where we live.

Directed by Indigenous filmmaker and photographer Piratá Waurá, Kamukuwaká – The Call of the Forest (15’) transports the audience to the Xingu Indigenous Territory in an immersive virtual reality experience. The work invites the audience to experience rituals, encounters with shamans (pajés), and visions of the forest across time, revealing the power of the Wauja knowledge in the face of the climate crisis.

At the heart of the narrative is the Sacred Cave of Kamukuwaká, whose ancient inscriptions safeguard the Xingu cosmology. Bridging myth and technology, the experience brings the public closer to Wauja wisdom and points towards possible, fairer future paths.

Watch the trailer:

The work stems from the struggle of the Wauja people, from the Upper Xingu, for the preservation of their principal cultural heritage: the Sacred Cave of Kamukuwaká. Listed by IPHAN and vandalised in 2018, the cave is considered the “book of knowledge” for the peoples of the Upper Xingu. For centuries, its stone walls, carved with ancestral inscriptions, transmitted fundamental teachings to new generations — rituals, body paintings, chants, and the entire Xingu cosmology.

In response to this violence, the Wauja people (Xingu), People’s Palace Projects (United Kingdom), and the Factum Foundation (Spain) worked together for nearly a decade on the restoration of the vandalised engravings and the creation of a life-sized replica of the cave, now installed in the Ulupuwene village in Xingu. This collaboration gave rise to a virtual reality pilot, allowing the Indigenous people to continue visiting the cave — albeit virtually — and was the starting point for the development of “Kamukuwaká – A Call of the Forest.”