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Blue is one of the most challenging colors for humans to produce and one of the most important colors in art history. Literature from the Tikuna/Magüta culture, from the Amazon Forest, suggests the use of chemical reactions between the juice of the naīcü fruit and iron to produce a blue colorant still unknown among technical art historians and conservation scientists. Additionally, the coloring materials from the Tikuna/Magüta people were never chemically investigated. Therefore, this manuscript presents the investigation of blue colorants from twenty-two Tikuna/Magüta masks and one stamp used to decorate similar items. Collections from four museums, from the USA and Brazil, were examined, and Raman spectra indicated the presence of Prussian blue, phthalocyanine blue, indigo, ultramarine, crystal violet, amorphous carbon, anatase, and barium sulfate (or lithopone). Although the unknown blue colorant was not detected in this campaign, the authors hypothesize the chemical composition and reactions involved in its production by considering the chemistry of naīcü and anthocyanins. The continuation of this work with community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches is also discussed, justifying why reproduction was not considered in this work and supporting a more socially responsible and inclusive practice in technical art history and conservation science.

The Brazilian Legal Amazon region is divided into at least 155 ethnic groups and has the largest concentration of Indigenous people globally. It represents one of the most extraordinary levels of human, cultural, and artistic diversity, but its material culture is one of the least well-studied. This is especially true in technical art history and conservation science, largely due to (1) the limited international awareness of the richness of materials and techniques used by these Indigenous people and (2) the limitations of knowledge access for many scientists to literature usually published in Portuguese within social sciences and humanities. One result is that these arts are marginalized within technical art history, conservation, and conservation science. To address this knowledge gap, the authors explore 70 materials—among them pigments, dyes, binding media, and varnishes—used for paint production and coloring processes, including syntheses. The authors facilitate research possibilities within technical art history, conservation, and conservation science by presenting data from historical texts from the 18th and 19th centuries and more recent scientific literature. The work aims to build a more global, inclusive, and decentralized vision of art history and to create a more pluralistic narrative of Indigenous art history from South America.