Juan Picon Robles

The Waorani communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon living in the Yasuni nature preserve have long struggled to defend their territory from the threat of extractive activities. They lay claim to the rich ecological biodiversity of their ecosystem and the deep knowledge about its use and management. Waorani grandparents (pikenanis) prize their oral knowledge and aspire to pass it along to youths in the community. This knowledge is transmitted by walks through the jungle in which they describe the use of each plant and point out the places where they have cultivated their chacras. All this information is stored in mental maps of their territory. This knowledge also encompasses newer sustainable practices that Waorani women have begun to exploit in the forest including cacao and palm tree crops that provide natural fibers for their handicrafts. The reproduction of the Waorani people depends on the transmission of these mental maps to youth who have been educated in state schools or in cities. For this reason, the project has transposed these mental maps to an interactive and audiovisual platform which encapsulates memory of the elders and inter-generational dialogue between Waorani youth and elders to increase awareness among national and international level entities about the sustainable defense of the Waorani territory.