Seya — A Yawanawa Spiritual Diet at the Sacred Village
November 30 – December 30, 2026 | Aldeia Sagrada Yawanawa, Acre, Brazilian Amazon
Instituto Nixiwaka invites those who feel called to experience Seya, a profound immersion into Yawanawa spirituality and the ancestral practice of Samakei — the Yawanawa spiritual diet.
For one month, the Sacred Village (Aldeia Sagrada) will open its doors to a small group of participants for a journey of learning, purification, self-reflection and connection with the spiritual traditions of the Yawanawa people.
The meaning of Seya and Samakei
Seya is a prayer performed by a Yawanawa Pajé (spiritual healer) to open and guide the journey of a person entering a Samakei.
Samakei, which can be translated as “diet,” is one of the central practices through which Yawanawa spiritual knowledge has traditionally been studied and transmitted. It is a period of discipline and introspection in which participants follow specific restrictions while receiving teachings and participating in traditional practices and ceremonies.
The diet creates a space to step away from ordinary life and turn one’s attention inward — toward an intention, a question or a transformation that the participant wishes to cultivate.
Guided by Yawanawa spiritual leaders
This special Samakei will take place under the guidance of Chief Nixiwaka, Chief Matsini and Putanny, together with Yawanawa Pajés, elders, plant-medicine knowledge holders and teachers.
They will be joined by members of their families and a new generation carrying Yawanawa knowledge forward, including Peu, Nawashahu, Kuru and Yka, among others.
Living within the Sacred Village allows participants to encounter these teachings in the place where they belong: surrounded by the forest, the river, the community and the spiritual life of the Yawanawa people.
A month of immersion
Throughout the Samakei, participants will follow the traditional restrictions of the diet and take part in a program that may include Uni ceremonies, Rume (Rapé), Sepá, Yawanawa chants and music studies, traditional stories and teachings, Yawanawa cosmology and language, plant walks, steam baths, body painting with jenipapo and other ancestral practices.
The experience is not conceived as a conventional retreat. It is an opportunity to enter, with respect and commitment, into a living Indigenous spiritual tradition and to receive teachings directly from those who have carried and protected this knowledge across generations.
The number of participants will therefore be limited, preserving the intimacy and depth of the experience.
At the heart of Yawanawa spirituality
The Sacred Village holds a unique place in the history and spiritual life of the Yawanawa. To undertake a Samakei there is to experience the teachings within the forest and community from which they originate.
For those who feel a genuine calling to undertake this journey, Seya is an invitation to dedicate one month to listening, discipline, prayer, learning and transformation under the guidance of Yawanawa spiritual leaders.
SEYA — Yawanawa Spiritual Diet
November 30 – December 30, 2026
Aldeia Sagrada Yawanawa
Acre, Brazilian Amazon
For further information and details about participation, please contact Yawanawa Retreats.
