Canela Apanyekrá

The Apanyekra are one of several Canela-speaking Indigenous communities of northeastern Brazil, sharing a language and a history with the Ramkokamekrá and Kenkateye. Before the nineteenth century their livelihood rested mainly on hunting and gathering across woodland and savanna, with cultivated gardens supplying an estimated one-fifth of their food.

Mobility gave families access to game and wild fruit across a wide landscape, while gardens added useful plants and reduced complete dependence on the returns of a single hunt. Canela communities met settlers and cattle ranchers pushing into the Mearim valley, and the Apanyekra name identifies one community within that wider linguistic grouping.