About the name
Every tree, river and stone is part of one living whole, and we are part of it too. Our name, a Yanomami word for the spirits of all things, reminds us to give back to the Earth a little of the care she gives us.
Where it comes from
The Yanomami are an Indigenous people who live in the rainforest on both sides of the border between Brazil and Venezuela. In their language, the xapiri are spirits, and xapiripë is the plural. The story below tells where they come from.
How the xapiripë came to be
A short retelling, in our own words, of the Yanomami story of the xapiripë. It is only a small part of a much larger story.
The first sky falls
Long ago, before this forest, there was another world under another sky. That first sky was old and fragile, and one day it fell.
The back of that fallen sky, which the Yanomami call Hutukara, became the ground they live on today. That is why they speak of the forest as the old sky, and why their own association is named Hutukara.
Omama makes a new land
Omama, the creator, made a new and stronger forest. He spread it out little by little, the way clay is spread to make a plate, and planted huge pieces of metal deep in the ground so that the new sky would stand firm.
Then he made the mountains, the sun and all the plants.
The first people
Omama married the daughter of Tëpërësiki, a great being of the rivers who owned the garden plants. From them the Yanomami were born.
Omama’s brother, Yoasi, was jealous of him. From Yoasi came death and the illnesses of the world.
Omama makes the xapiripë
Omama’s wife, Thuëyoma, worried about how their children would be healed when they fell ill. So Omama made the xapiripë, the spirits, to chase sickness away, and he taught his son to call them.
Omama’s son became the first shaman.
What the xapiripë are
The xapiripë are the images of the first ancestors, the yarori, beings with animal names who kept changing shape until they became the animals of the forest.
Every being has its xapiri: great trees like the kapok, the animals, stones and waters, the moon, the sun and thunder. There are countless xapiripë, and they never die. They are said to be as tiny as specks of sparkling dust, bright as light, dancing and singing on vast shining mirrors.
Holding up the sky
Today, Yanomami shamans work with the xapiripë to heal the sick and to hold up the sky, so that it will not fall again.
And if the forest is destroyed, the sky could fall once more, on everyone.
Support Yanomami-led work
The Yanomami Foundation is a nonprofit that works with Yanomami leaders, at their request, to protect their homeland in the Amazon and pass their knowledge on to new generations.
Visit the Yanomami FoundationThe name is also one reason for our pledge.