Beauty that comes from the forest: the ritual of Kayapó women and the power of ancestral care.

The beauty that springs from the land.

In the forest, the river is the mirror.
It is there that Kayapó women learn that beauty is not an adornment, but a way of existing in harmony with nature.
Between the songs of the villages and the reflection of the waters, the Miss Kayapó emerges — a ritual that celebrates strength, the body, and belonging.

More than a competition, it is a meeting of worlds: the traditional gesture transformed into a contemporary scene.
In it, young women parade not to compete, but to assert an identity — made of colors, rhythms, and memories that endure.

The profound meaning of beauty

Among the Mebêngôkre (Kayapó), the term mejx means more than just "beautiful".
To be mejx is to be good, ethical, and correct.
It is the balance between body and spirit — the reflection of a life lived with respect for time and the earth.

Beauty, in this context, is constructed:
Through the community's perspective, through care for the body, through the way of walking, dancing, and smiling.
Every gesture is a language.
Each color represents knowledge passed down from generation to generation.

The body as sacred territory

In the Miss Kayapó pageant , young women paint their skin with genipap and annatto, and adorn themselves with beads and macaw headdresses.
But the embellishments are only the surface of something deeper.
They are symbols of memory and belonging, ways of telling who you are — and where you came from.

The catwalk walks are not imitations of television models.
These are translations — gestures that reinterpret the other's gaze without losing oneself.
The parade is a ritual: the body becomes a message, and care, an expression.

When the forest inspires care.

The Kayapó teach that caring is also preserving.
That the body, like the river, carries stories, and that beauty only makes sense when it gives back to the earth what comes from it.
The forest doesn't teach vanity: it teaches presence.

This same principle inspires Cabano — creating products that respect nature's rhythms and the essentials of life.
Like the people of the river, we believe that true care is born from what is pure, light, and real.

Beauty is what returns to nature.
And every act of care is also a way of starting over.

Reference:
Demarchi, André. Miss Kayapó: ritual, spectacle and beauty. Journal de la Société des américanistes , 103-1, 2017. DOI: 10.4000/jsa.14981