Welcome to
the path ahead
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The Nomanawa, traditionally known as the Juriti Bird Clan, are an Indigenous nation living at the remote end of the Tauari River in Acre, Brazil. Guided by their master healers, the Romeya Pajés, and their song keepers, the Txanas, they have preserved their native language, Nokevana, and ancestral forest knowledge across generations. Severe drought has lowered the Tauari River, their only route to medical care, clean water, and supplies, and encroaching cattle ranching and farming threaten their remaining land. Organized under the Noke Koi Federation, they are mapping and defending their territory to protect what remains.
General chief of the Tauari Region of the Noke Koi people and president of the Noke Koi Federation, Cacique Yama is a respected spiritual and political leader who has dedicated his life to preserving ancestral traditions and passing that knowledge to future generations. He also serves as vice-president of Vozes da Floresta. At a time when farming and cattle ranching is pushing deeper into Indigenous territories, his leadership is a living act of resistance, protecting both land and lineage.
One of the oldest Indigenous cultures in the Northwest Amazon, the Cofán (A'i) are internationally recognized leaders in Indigenous-led conservation, defending more than a million acres of ancestral rainforest. Their language, A'ingae, carries generations of ecological knowledge, and yagé sits at the center of their spiritual and community life. Their territory in Putumayo sits deep within war-torn land, surrounded by narco-traffickers and multinational oil and mining interests.
Taita Enrique began his spiritual apprenticeship at the age of 12, studying under the guidance of elder shamans to learn the ancient language of the forest, its plant medicines, animal energies, and protective spirits. Over six decades later, his mission is clear: to pass this wisdom on to his children and ensure that the Cofán healing traditions survive. He is the oldest living Taita in Colombia and leads the Campo Alegre resguardo, home to one third of the living Cofán in Colombia and one of their most important cultural and educational hubs.
Since childhood, Abuela Vitelia has devoted herself to mastering the traditional plants, songs, and ceremonies of her people. Now one of the most respected elders in her community, she holds a rare distinction: she is the only woman in her community entrusted to guide yagé ceremonies, an extraordinary honor in a lineage historically led by men.
Living in the Santa Rosa del Guamuéz resguardo in Putumayo, Taita Universario studied for years in Campo Alegre with elder healers before earning the right to lead yagé ceremonies in his own community. His profound connection to the forest's spiritual realm and its abundant medicines guides his work. Today, he is widely regarded as one of the most trusted and revered healers among the Cofán.
The Collaborators
A multidisciplinary artist working across contemporary art, immersive media, and Hollywood. His most recent work, REMOTE, co-created with Mika Rottenberg premiered at Tate Modern, has travelled the world, and is held in the permanent collections at Tate, Moderna Museet, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. His video and installation collaborations have been shown at the Whitney Biennial, Art Basel, and institutions worldwide. He began as a conflict-zone documentarian across more than fifty countries and has written and produced multiple TV shows and films. Raised in Tehran during the Iranian Revolution, he emigrated as a teenager and has called New York home for three decades. He founded Starfish, an arts nonprofit that supports mid-career artists breaking new ground, and serves on the advisory board of MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality. His collaboration with Rottenberg continues with PINK, premiering in 2028 at Fotografiska Berlin, Art Cologne, and Hauser and Wirth.
Sound artist, musician, and composer whose practice bridges ancestral ceremonial music with contemporary spatial sound design. As an Indigenous Aymara artist from Peru, her research centers on Indigenous sonic epistemologies, exploring how sound carries memory, territory, and healing across Andean and Amazonian contexts. Irazema's work spans field recording, composition, sound engineering, live performance, and installation, with a focus on making audible the delicate relationships between land, community, and cosmology. For CURA, she is composing a specialized 14.2-channel spatial soundscape. Her work has been presented across Peru, Colombia, the United States, and internationally throughout Europe and Oceania.
Colombian architect, educator, and co-founder of Fundación Organizmo, based in Bogotá and working deeply within rural Colombia. She specializes in Indigenous and traditional building techniques. Recognizing an urgent need to revitalize vernacular architecture, she has spent two decades building spaces where infrastructure invites an active dialogue with the living world. For CURA, she leads the design and fabrication of the portal, expanding her lifelong dedication to low-impact, territory-driven architectural craft.
Producers, research, and advisory
Seasoned documentarian whose work appears on Netflix, Hulu, BBC, CNN, Discovery, and Vice. Specializes in immersive filmmaking that dissolves cultural boundaries. His international experience provides crucial support for complex Amazon shoots.
A daughter of the forest, Maria Gabriela was born and raised in Leticia, Amazonas, and a trilingual filmmaker, journalist, chef, and producer. She has focused on vulnerable populations, social development and cultural preservation with extensive production experience and contacts across the Amazon.
Biodiversity conservation specialist in the protection of traditional Indigenous knowledge across Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
A Mexican American producer based in New York City. She has worked on several films and series for PBS, VICE, and A&E. She enjoys working on projects that seek answers where answers may not be easily found.
technical collaborators
Colombian architect based in Mexico whose practice explores architecture as a dialogue between nature, material, and place. Through parametric design, biomimicry, and the conscious use of local and natural materials—particularly bamboo—she develops spatial systems that respond sensitively to their context.
Concept artist whose visual storytelling has shaped projects for Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures, MSG Sphere, Google Events & Experiences, Wired Magazine, The Mill, BBDO, and leading studios such as Psyop and Imaginary Forces.
Image and Sound Collaborators
An award-winning visual artist and cinematographer of film and TV, including Crows Are White (2022)—whose practice merges narrative techniques with documentary form to expand the boundaries of non-fiction storytelling.
Seven-time Emmy winner with visual language shaped across 50 countries. Recognized with Peabody and two BAFTA nominations. His photojournalistic background brings intimate, unvarnished perspective essential for capturing both beauty and devastation.
Brazilian artist whose decade-long New York practice includes Academy Award-nominated The Edge of Democracy (2020). His dialectic, intuitive approach creates compelling narratives that challenge and inspire.
Field recordist whose work includes Juyeko Humboldt and Paristopia. He captured the forest recordings that form the acoustic foundation of CURA.
