As part of a collaborative study of the conservation of Amazonian featherwork artifacts, this paper presents the results of a fading study as well as an investigation to assess the efficacy of cleaning macaw feathers using a Nd:YAG laser. After exposure of red macaw feather samples for 10 Mlux hours, the CIE94 colour change was calculated to be 2.07[plus or minus] 0.17 units, which places macaw featherwork into the upper end (lower sensitivity) of the sensitive category in terms of Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) lighting policy. Using the data for noticeable changes, the sample would fall into ISO light fastness rating 4. Using the blue wool data, the sample is less fugitive than Blue Wool 5, approximating the expected fading rate for Blue Wool 6, and would correspond to ISO rating 6. Initial laser cleaning successfully removed most of the artificially applied soiling from feather samples without apparent surface disruption or colour change. -- SCMRE