The Palikur are an indigenous people located in the riverine areas of the Brazilian state of Amapá and in French Guiana, particularly in the south-eastern border region, on the north bank of the Oyapock River.

The Palikur were also embroiled in the protracted colonial rivalry between Portugal and France for control of the region, extending south of Ile de Cayenne (French Guiana) into what today constitutes the Brazilian state of Amapá.

Not until the late 1960s, with the creation of FUNAI, and as they began converting to Pentecostalism, did the Palikur became more responsive to the Brazilian government.

[5] A part of the population moved to Régina, Roura, Lamirande near Balata, and the neighbourhood of l’îlet Malouin in Cayenne.

[7][8] The Palikur subsist largely on bow and arrow fishing, supplemented by hunting and horticulture.

Sweet potatoes, sugarcane, peppers, gourds, cotton, and papayas, which the Palikur have adopted from the Europeans, along with mangoes, coffee, and citrus trees, are also cultivated.

Commercial relations between the Palikur and the Europeans began to intensify in the early 18th century; river and forest products were exchanged for tools, harpoons, clothes and glass beads.