The Noke Koi are an Indigenous tribe from Acre, Brazil who consider themselves guardians of the psychoactive plant brew ayahuasca, which they call “uni.” This summer, they traveled to the U.S. to spread an urgent message: their home in the Amazon is being destroyed.
Psychedelics are now at the center of a global conversation about mental health, mysticism, and even how we experience illness and death. In Altered States, host Arielle Duhaime-Ross explores how people are taking these drugs, who has access to them, how they’re regulated, who stands to profit, and what these substances might offer us as individuals and as a society. Listen to more episodes here.
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Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:00:01] Not too long ago, I heard about a delegation of leaders from a village located in the state of Acre, Brazil. They were traveling in the United States to spread a message that the Amazon, their home, is being destroyed. The impact of this destruction isn’t just local. It threatens everything. People, plants, animals, insects, trees, disrupting entire weather patterns. This traveling delegation is part of an indigenous group called the Noke Koi. And they are responding to mounting interest around ayahuasca, this psychoactive plant brew that they call Uni. The Noke Koi mostly welcome this attention, but only if it’s coupled with a commitment to saving the place where these mind-altering plants grow, the tropical forests of South America.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:00:52] This summer, I had the chance to speak with members of the Noke Koi delegation, the chief, the group’s medicine man, and some musicians. They were making their way to a psychedelics conference in Denver. And today, we are bringing that conversation to you. I’m Arielle Duhaime-Ross, and this is Altered States.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:01:15] So to start, can I just have you introduce yourself?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:01:19] Olá, bom dia a todos. Meu nome é [00:01:22]Yamano Manawa, [0.8s] eu sou cacique geral.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:01:27] Hello, good morning everyone. My name is Yama Nomanawa. I’m the chief of the Nomanawa village. I’m from Acre, Brazil. My role as a leader is to care for my people and also care for our land. Care for the forests, the animals, the rivers, care for our wisdom and our native plants. That is the role of a leader, to protect what’s around us. Using our Noke Koi tradition.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:01:51] Can you talk about the decision to share Unі with foreigners?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:01:55] A minha decisão própria, ou seja, com o povo,
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:02:00] The decision is my own on behalf of my people, since I’m their chief. From the middle of the forest, and with our sacred medicine uni, we do our work, we sing, we pray along with our whole family, but a new moment has come. I think this is a new time, a time for spirits to ally, a time to speak or announce to the world that this medicine exists. The forest exists, the sacred knowledge exists. This is the moment to bring the knowledge of the forest to the rest of the world. We need to learn how to respect the earth, respect the spirit of the forest, the spirit of each medicine and its origins and the origin of the people. While this medicine has been talked about in many parts of the world, the truth has been left behind. What is the truth? Many people work with this medicine but do not understand the roots of the spirit of the medicine, the richness of the medicine. My message wherever I go in the world, inside or outside the village, in the city, anywhere I go is sharing this sacred wisdom with people so we can live well, so we can unite. We observe things happening around the world and we never had the opportunity to get out and share our knowledge and explain to others what is happening in Brazil, in Acre, in our villages. So I made the decision to share the wisdom we received in the forest.
CGTN America (News Clip) [00:03:25] Illegal logging has been blamed for turning plush rainforest into a patchwork of trees and farmland.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:03:32] Brazil loses millions of acres of rainforest every year to illegal logging, mining, and also to agricultural expansion. What does that look like from the vantage point of your village?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:03:43] Como eu vejo aquecimento da terra.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:03:49] I see the warming of the earth. The rivers getting dry every year.
BBC News (News Clip) [00:03:53] The Amazon has had its worst forest fires in two decades. More than sixty-two thousand square kilometers have been thrown
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:04:00] Os peixes vão embora, os peixes morrem.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:04:02] The fish leave or die. Fruit is disappearing from the forest or are coming off season. In dry seasons no one is able to eat properly because the fish are gone.
Scripps News (News Clip) [00:04:13] Brazil’s government is rolling back environmental protections in a massive chunk of the Amazon range
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:04:18] Não tem mais água.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:04:20] Not enough water. For instance, last year the Taori River had half of its normal water level. Three years ago there were lots of fish and the river was deeper. I decided to travel and share this knowledge because the forest is being destroyed.
Reuters (News Clip) [00:04:36] This is the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Reserve, where deforestation is strictly prohibited. But illegal loggers and ranchers have cleared forest and destroyed unique flora.
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:04:47] Então nas minhas viagens eu vejo.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:04:50] In my travels I see other indigenous land where standing forests still exist. Beyond indigenous land, there are only farms, cattle, soy plantations. There are no more medicines, no more standing forests. We see only black smoke. This is why I left my village and I am here to share this wisdom.
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:05:15] Então eu faço pergunta pra mim mesmo.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:05:17] I always ask myself why large companies don’t recognize indigenous peoples, don’t respect the forest, and don’t help minimize sickness. In order to create this unity with other people, I had to leave my village, bring this knowledge out into the world and hope other people are able to help the forest and the planet. We live in a land that does not belong to us, the land that holds the graves of our great Romayas, the great masters of medicine, masters of music and healing. They were buried in that region, and today it is a state reserve. Still, we protect that forest and the medicine and the lineage of the Noke Koi people. I’m working on behalf of future generations. I think of the children. In my journey here, I’m speaking and asking people because Cacique Yama needs help to at least have a small piece of our ancestral land returned to us so we can continue our prayers for humanity and the world and protect the spirit of our masters. Protect the ancestral burials. It is going to take a long time. Even if we do not get our land back to the Nomanawa clan, our clan, our prayer, our fight, our voice, the scream of the earth, the scream of the Amazon forest will always be alive in future generations.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:06:37] You talk about taking care of the forest and I’m wondering what does that look like and what challenges do you encounter when you’re trying to go about that?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:06:46] Proteger a floresta é não derrubar uma árvore, não destruir árvores. Então isso significa proteger a floresta.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:06:57] Protecting the forest simply means not cutting the tree, not toppling the tree, not destroying the tree. That is protecting the forest. I see the life of the native people of the forest, and I also see the people that do not respect the forest. Our wisdom is about caring for the forest, for the sacred plants, for our tradition. Life is different in the forest. We have different traditions, different customs, different languages. We enjoy this light, this land, this knowledge, this connection to nature. Without the rainforest, we are nothing. The life of the indigenous peoples is nothing. The forest protects us, and we must protect the standing forest. Life is in nature. In our region in Acre, Brazil, the forest that still stands protects us, but the forest has been toppled. What happens is this the earth warms, heats up a lot, then come all types of diseases, all because humans are not respecting the forest. To me, this is very bad. We have to do something. If we keep destroying the forest, we’ll lose the power of the earth and lose our culture, our medicine. These medicines are important and they are abundant in the middle of the forest.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:08:22] You mentioned that you will lose your traditional medicines if your forests aren’t protected. Which medicines are you referring to?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:08:29] A medicina, quando eu falo da medicina, incluindo tudo.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:08:35] When I speak about medicine, I’m speaking about everything like ayahuasca, kambo or sananga and other types of sacred herbs that exist in the forest. When humans destroy the forest, we lose all these. In my language, ayahuasca is called uni. The word comes from the union of the people, of the family, of a nation. Since our first generation, inside the uni journey, we learn to connect with the earth spirit, the forest spirit, to all the medicines, all the animals and everything around us. We take this medicine, we enter its power, travel to the spiritual world, and we see what is hurting this person, and we’re able to help heal the body and save the family. So it is through the use of this medicine that we learn respect and get our education in the middle of the forest. I myself was born, raised and educated inside this school of the spirit. My role is to defend and protect this sacred medicine. A lot of people say that uni is a drug, but for us, it is not a drug, it’s medicine.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:09:45] Cacique, I want to ask this question directly to Sheka Nominawa, who’s also here with you. And from what I understand, we’re gonna need your help to translate from his tribal language, Noke Vana, to Portuguese. So, Shekah you’re the healer in your village. Some would call you the forest doctor or the pajé. What does it mean to be a healer within this community?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:10:05] Bom é sobre a cura do Pajé é como o papel do Pajé. Não é qualquer pessoa.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:10:17] Not everyone can be a pajé. The pajé is chosen by the spirit. He did not have an interest in being a pajé. He didn’t think of it or dream of it. He did not hope for it. One day he was hunting in the forest and he came across a large serpent. At that moment, he knew what he was going to become. During this meeting, the serpent gave him the power, and that’s when he became the pajé. Now he looks after the people, the family. The job of the pajé is to take the medicine and travel within the person’s body and find the sickness. The pajé identifies the type of the suffering, be it a headache or a fever. Then through this spirit, he decides how and what to do to take away the pain. What type of prayer to use, how to begin, how to see where in the spirit the person is suffering, how the spirit is being attacked. So this is the work of the pajé.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:11:21] I do want to ask you about uni a little bit. Again, this is for the pajé. Are there Noke Koi people who don’t take uni? And how often do people in your community consume uni? How often do you advise them to consume it?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:11:35] Quando é família a Neika se vê aqui conhecimento.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:11:49] In our region, near the Tawari River, our entire Nomanawa family takes the medicine. A ten year old child will already start taking the medicine. We will take it three times a week. That’s because it’s our tradition, it’s our culture. We cannot lose our culture. It is our sacred path. Like I said, it is a school and a school cannot close.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:12:14] I want to turn back to you again, Cacique Yama Nomanawa. How old were you the first time that you tried Uni?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:12:20] Primeiramente, dentro da minha tradição,
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:12:24] First in our tradition, starting when we are children, our parents pass along the knowledge. They explain how uni works so we can enter this tradition. My father and mother gave me more knowledge. They showed me how to be part of this school when I was twelve or thirteen years old. That’s when I began taking the medicine. My first cup of the medicine showed me how the Noke Koi people came to be, how I can live in the middle of the forest, and how I can lead my people, connect with the spirit of the animals and the spirit of the water. It showed me how to organize the people and ally with other brothers, indigenous and non indigenous, and how to access the power to pray, to sing the tiding day of the Noke Koi people, counsel the people, and enter the world of Saite and enter the realm of the healing spirit. These experiences and this knowledge that come to us come from the stars. The light that descends powerfully into our minds and heart energizes our bodies.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:13:24] I know that music is an integral part of ayahuasca ceremonies in your culture and you have musicians here today in the studio with you. I want to hear some of their music, but first can you tell me what role music plays exactly in your culture and and what the songs are about?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:13:41] É, o papel da música, na verdade, é o trabalho dos tianás.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:13:46] The role of the music is in fact the real work of the Txanãs or musicians. The songs they sing during ceremonies are spirit songs. The Txanãs enter the force of the medicine, travel through the spirit world, they call for it and listen to the music of the stars. Through music, the Txanãs illuminate the path to people. Through music, they bring images, colors, and flowers from the stars. They bring joy into people’s hearts. They bring divine light to the body and heart. There are several types of music. Some are just about joy, some are about journeys, some are about traveling through the spirit world. Some of these we call saités. These are about fighting illness.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:14:43] They tap into the power of the medicine and guide people in connecting to the stars and touch the great spirit, understand the path, and connect with life, health, union. That’s the role of the music. We sing these songs while reaching for the spirits. In truth, the music we sing during ceremonies often have no translation. They are in the spirit languages. We simply mimic the language spoken by the spirit. You cannot translate it. It is the language of the people that live connected to the stars. It’s a language of the spirits who take away illness, cleanse our bodies, minds, and hearts. These spirits sing in the power of the medicine.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:15:31] When would you use this song during a ceremony?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:15:35] É, a música cantada na cerimônia não é… não tem horário, não tem…
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:15:40] There’s no right moment in the ceremony for singing. It is dependent on the spirit who comes to us. We may be singing saités, tirindês or a Txanãs song. It depends on the presence of the Spirit. We don’t choose a time or the right moment to sing.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:16:02] So part of sharing uni means that foreigners are coming to Acre and to your village. For the people who come to your village, what are they typically seeking?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:16:12] A pessoa precisa de cura.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:16:16] People need healing. They come and meet village pajés, see their rituals and community, and these people are feeling ill, headaches, body aches, aches of the heart, feeling the loss of their path, and it is a sacred moment, actually a sacred meeting, where they’re able to find a way to healing, open their eyes, connect to the sacred Samauna trees, connect with our ancestral spirits who are the strong pajés buried there. The country we have worked with, especially the Nomanawa, is the United States. It’s a small group, but to tell you the truth, our medicine man heals many kinds of illnesses. He is able to take away, remove, and clean the way to get to the place of real healing, the root of the culture, the root of the cure.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:17:10] When we return, a look at how Chief Yama Nomonawa is teaming up with other indigenous groups to advocate for the protection of the Noke Koi as well as the rainforest. Stick around.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:17:34] Welcome back to Altered States, I’m Arielle Duhaime-Ross. I’ve been talking to Cacique Yama Nomonawa, the chief of the Noke Koi, an indigenous group from Brazil. And before the break, we were discussing how the Noke Koi began inviting foreigners to drink ayahuasca in their village. But the international interest in ayahuasca has created new problems as well for the Noke Koi and other indigenous groups. And earlier this year, the Noke Koi leadership participated in the fifth annual Indigenous Ayahuasca Conference in Brazil.
Indigenous Ayahuasca Conference Audio [00:18:03] E hoje é o começo de uma nova era.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:18:07] It brought thirty four different indigenous groups together to focus on quote the defense of ancestral knowledge about ayahuasca and self determination of indigenous people. This is a recording of a speech given at that conference.
Indigenous Ayahuasca Conference Audio [00:18:20] Nossos governantes, as leis do mundo.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:18:24] At the fifth annual Indigenous Conference in Brazil, you, along with dozens of other indigenous groups, signed a letter. Can you tell me what this letter was about and why it’s important?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:18:34] Primeira vez também que eu participei dessa conferência, a quinta conferência de Ayahuasca.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:18:39] This was the first time I participated in a conference about ayahuasca, and this was about how we wanted the medicine to be used. Today the medicine is not being respected. The medicine is being sold and transported all over the world. Another thing that was agreed upon amongst all the indigenous leaders, we do not want inexperienced people without knowledge of the medicine who do not know the spirit of the plant to work with the medicine. No one can work with it in this manner. Today we ask many people in federal government and even at the United Nations, why the indigenous peoples are not allowed to work with our own medicines, which is so sacred, a natural remedy that has the power to heal humanity. Why we do not have the right to travel with our own medicine? We do not even have the right to perform a ceremony, not even speak about the medicine. So the letter contains a call for changing the law and creating a way for us to be able to work freely with the medicine. This is a major concern of the indigenous leaders who participated in the fifth ayahuasca conference. Today our medicine is being sold at stores or other commercial spaces, and that is unacceptable. We have even heard of ayahuasca vape pens, ayahuasca in microdosing. This is wrong. Ayahuasca is to be used in ceremonies.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:20:06] In this letter from the indigenous leaders, there’s a portion that states a desire to reject all forms of global commercialization of ayahuasca. What does that mean to you?
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:20:18] É, isso é uma das grandes preocupações.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:20:21] This is definitely one of our major concerns. Because the right thing to do before commercializing would be to consult with the leaders of the peoples who have this medicine. If you do not consult with the indigenous guardians of the medicine, non-indigenous people who keep on exploiting the plant, while the ones who guard and know the medicine are kept away. While non-indigenous people build their churches and sacred spaces where they misuse the medicine, they use the medicine to start organizations and they forget the natives. Forget the origins of the plant and ignore the indigenous population who own the medicine. Many pajés, many villages, many indigenous peoples are living in scarcity. There are villages lacking clean water. There are families needing homes. The indigenous people are always forgotten. Still, people come, they take our culture, they take our medicine, and they forget our people. The ayahuasca medicine cannot be served by anyone. Ayahuasca is to be served by pajés, by caciques, but the great Txanãs, who are the ones who know the medicine. If you don’t have the wisdom to work with this medicine, it’s best not to do it. It is dangerous to the participants and dangerous to the people who are serving the medicine. This medicine is to heal, not for fun.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:21:51] Cacique Yama Nomanawa, thank you so much for coming here today and telling me about your culture and about Uni to the pajés as well. Please I I’d love if you could transmit my thank yous.
Chief Yama Nomanawa [00:22:01] Queria agradecer a todos vocês. Agradecendo mais uma vez ao grande espírito por me trazido até aqui.
Andre (Voice Actor) [00:22:09] I want to say thank you to all of you and thank you to the great spirit for bringing me here.
Arielle Duhaime-Ross [00:22:17] Altered States is a production of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and PRX. Cassady Rosenblum contributed reporting to this episode. Special thanks to Luna Ruckmaney. Voice acting by Andre Lacerda. Adizah Eghan is our senior editor. Our executive editor is Malia Wollan. Jennie Cataldo is our senior producer. Our researcher is Cassady Rosenblum. Our associate producer is Jade Abdul Malik. Our audio engineers are Terrence Bernardo and Jennie Cataldo. Fact checking by Graham Haysha. Our executive producers are Malia Wollan and Jocelyn Gonzales. And our project manager is Edwin Ochoa. Our theme music is by Thao Nguyen and Nate Brenner. I’m your host, Arielle Duhaime-Ross. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review Altered States wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back next week.
[00:23:08] Most well-known psychedelics remain illegal around the world, including the United States, where it is a criminal offense to manufacture, possess, dispense, or supply most psychedelics, with few exceptions. Altered States does not recommend or encourage the use of psychedelics or offer instructions in their use.