Suruí love poem

Here is my little love poem translated into suruí (suruí do Rondônia, suruí-paiter, suruí do Jiparaná), autonym paiter (real people).

This Tupi language of the Monde group, comes from Brazil, and is spoken by barely 1,000 people in the "Terra Indígena Sete de Setembro".

Contact between the Surui people and non-Indians only dates back to 1969.

The Paíters territory is located in the Sete de Setembro area, between Cacoal (Rondônia state) and the municipality of Aripuanã (Mato Grosso state) ).

If this indigenous land of Sete de Setembro was created for the Paiters in 1976 and declared their permanent possession, the arrival of settlers on their land, has already deprived them of part of it.

The Paíters live in villages of around 50 people. Their oral tradition recalls that it was under pressure of the whites that they migrated, from Cuiabá to Rondônia, their current area.

The Paiters are organized in patrilineal exogamic groups, they are polygamous and practice avuncular marriage (the man marries his sister's daughter).

If there are also cross-cousin marriages, there are none between parallel cousins, who are considered siblings (one of their myths, says that incestuous siblings were transformed into Moon).

Shamanism has a central role in their social life, and deals the health issues in their relationship with the supernatural. Their stories tell how some spirits can make men sick, while others can heal and protect.