Hitupmã’ax: intercultural education and specific health care for the Maxakali people

Abstract This study analyzed an artifact (a book on health) conceived by the Maxakali people, called Hitupmã’ax: curar (2008). Parallel to the project for the production of this book, the aim was to understand the negotiation of public health in Brazil from a historical and intercultural perspective of non-Western epistemologies. It was found that the construction of the Maxakali work represented an effort to bridge the gap in the perception of health and health care between indigenous and non-indigenous people. This was then used to demonstrate the importance of this intercultural project for the shaping of public policies for indigenous people in general and particularly for the promotion of the history, knowledge, and culture of the Maxakali people.