Brazilian president celebrates return of over 300-year-old sacred cloak: Video
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hailed the return of the sacred Tupinamba cloak as a "milestone" for Indigenous people during a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro.
The ceremonial cloak, which had been held at the National Museum of Denmark since 1689, was returned to Brazil as part of ongoing diplomatic efforts to recover Indigenous artefacts from international museums.
"The return of the sacred Tupinamaba mantle marks the beginning of a new history of conquest for Indigenous peoples," said Lula, adding that many lawmakers remain more aligned with large landowners than with Indigenous communities, the AFP reports.
The symbolic cloak, adorned with red feathers from the scarlet ibis bird and measuring nearly 1.8 meters (6 feet), arrived in Rio in early July. It will be displayed at the national museum, where President Lula led Thursday's event. Tupinamba community members celebrated its return but expressed frustration that the cloak has not yet been fully returned to its rightful owners.
" It (the cloak) has finally returned to its origin, Brazil. But the dominant power structures do not allow it to return to its true owners," said Yakuy, a member of the Tupinamba Indigenous community.
The Brazilian government has over the years made efforts to retrieve other Indigenous artefacts from museums in France, Japan, and other parts of the world.
