About
In the Wai'á ceremony, young Xavante men undergo suffering as an initiation into spiritual life and a way to make contact with supernatural forces. The boys are divided into groups, and under the supervision of past initiates they perform weeks of physical trials in the hot sun.
Their guardians induce ritual fainting in the boys, in order to give them dreams that will in turn have the power to make reality . The Wai'á ceremony takes place only about every 15 years, and its leaders want to create a visual record with the help of Xavante filmmaker Divino TserewahWai'á. Some aspects of the men's ceremony, however, are hidden from women and therefore cannot be recorded on video.
Films in the Indigenous Video Makers series
Credits
Coming Soon