TICUNA MASK MOTIF ART

The Tikuna people of the Amazon (Brazil/Colombia) celebrate girls’ puberty rites with a dance of giant bark cloth masks called moñoco, representing forest spirits with painted zoomorphic designs. Smaller decorative masks and painted panels carry the same swirling, colorful motifs of serpents and wind. This inclusive Amazonian heritage art expresses the transition from childhood to adulthood and the Tikuna’s deep relationship with jungle spirits, preserved and shared through mesmerizing mask imagery.