Ancestral hunting practices throughout the Amazon are quickly disappearing as knowledge is forgotten and shotguns replace traditional hunting tools. Game is becoming harder to find in the nearby jungle next to settled (non-nomadic) communities and additionally there is a rise of packaged food entering Indigenous villages.

The Matsés, unlike many other ethnic groups in the Amazon, still use traditional hunting tools, most noticeably the bow and arrow. Shotguns have largely replaced the traditional method, but for specific animals, noticeably birds and particularly the tinamous (partridge-like birds), the arrow is still the preferred tool of choice.

The Matsés are well renowned for their arrows, reaching 2 metres in length; they are amongst the finest produced in the Amazon. The arrow shaft is made from the flower stem of the arrow cane (Gynerium sagittatum). The process begins by fletching the arrow: the vanes of a feather are removed from the rachis, and each half is attached to the arrow shaft using a natural adhesive made from a mix of several types of beeswax and rubber latex. The feather is secured to the shaft using the thread-like veins of banana leaf petioles.

The most common feathers used are black ones taken from the curassow bird, but other bird species are known to be used, such as black and white feathers from the harpy eagle and the all-black feathers of vultures. Strong bamboo points are carefully shaped with a machete before they are attached to the arrow shaft using beeswax once more. Cotton thread is wrapped tightly over the joint for a solid and strong attachment, ready to handle rainforest hunting.

Finally, the arrowhead is painted with designs that correspond to the clan of the owner using annatto seed pigment. The Matsés have two patrilineal clans: bëdibo ‘the jaguar clan’ and macubo ‘the caterpillar clan’, and each has 3-4 clan-specific designs that are used on arrows and headbands.

Bows are usually made from various species of strong but flexible palm wood. The bowstring is made from the twisted bark of a type of Cecropia tree.

Two-metre lances are traditionally used in defence from the jaguar during unexpected jungle encounters. Today, they are more commonly used as a ceremonial and status object rather than in jaguar defence.

The material to make the lance is obtained by felling the hard outer bark layer of the peach palm tree (Bactris gasipaes). Then the wood is cut to size and shaped by carefully carving out the soft white pith. It takes a full day of meticulously reducing the wood before it begins to take the shape of the lance.

Once shaped, home-spun cotton thread is wrapped around the shaft and painted with the pulp of annatto berries as decoration which sits close to the spearhead and is used to grip the lance. They sand the spears (and bows) with dry leaves of a tree (Pouroma sp.) whose leaves have a rough underside, similar to fine-grained sandpaper. With the fresh grainey leaves of this same tree, they polish the spear to give it a shiny finish.

The Matsés men learn how to make these artefacts from their fathers, and in turn it is they who will teach their children in the passing down of this ancient craft to the next generation.

In Matsés villages it is generally only the elders who have the knowledge to make these artefacts. The reality today is that very few young Matsés take interest in learning and continuing these practices. It is our mission for this ancestral transmission to continue, by offering support and motivation to the younger generation when learning from their elders. The platform which Xapiri Ground provides gives inspiration for this art to continue, alongside sustainable economic opportunities to the Matsés.