Red Oven-bird Pot

Red clay with glaze, 28 x 16 cm, Artist’s Collection (Photo: Edgar Kanaykõ Xakriabá)

Oven birds are very wise, and teach us various lessons. The door to the house they build is always on the opposite side from where the rain usually comes. The oven bird has three colors: the tail is reddish, the throat white, and the rest of the body earth-colored. This pot shows a clear relationship between the bird, mud, and water—it provides us with information about what the rainy season will be like.

The glaze was extracted from black rock, and white and yellow toá, a very light mineral.