Álvaro Fernandes Sampaio is the grandson and son of leaders of the Tukano People. At the age of ten, he was taken by missionaries to study in an environment where French, Italian, German, and Spanish were spoken, where he stayed for several months. At sixteen, he returned to study at the missionary school of Pari Cachoeira, where he was trained and became a teacher and catechist in the village of São Francisco. He later joined the military service, where he worked as a nurse in the barracks.

Álvaro Tukano is an Indigenous leader with over 40 years of experience in national Indigenous policy. He participated in the creation of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of the Rio Negro (FOIRN), the former UNI (Union of Indigenous Nations), the formative process of the National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), and the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), a communication network among Indigenous peoples.

In his travel report to Rotterdam, the Netherlands—where he recounts his meeting with Mário Juruna—several of his international engagements are documented, which contributed to political changes for Indigenous peoples in Brazil. Together with other Indigenous leaders, he helped in the demarcation of Indigenous territories in the Upper Rio Negro. He is one of the creators and developers of the audiovisual and photographic documentation project Indigenous Centuries in Brazil, in partnership with his friend Frank Coe, a cultural and film producer.