PLEASE ROTATE YOUR DEVICE

2019

A boy holds a small parrot before a school play in Sarayaku’s Central Plaza during the Pachamama (Mother Earth) festivities.

2016

Penelope Santi takes a bath in the Sarayakillo River before going to school. This tributary, along with the Rotuno River, are particularly clean.

2017

A boy sleeps in a hunting camp before the beginning of the Uyantza Raymi festival. Before the celebration begins, men and children starting at 9 years of age, spend several weeks hunting and fishing deep in the jungle. The food they get will be given to the whole community during the 4-day long festivity.

2016

Children of the Aranda Gualinga family rest in their home with their monkey and toucan pets. They live in Molinos, a community that is located within Sarayaku territory but that administratively doesn't belong to it. This community is much less developed than Sarayaku and it supports oil exploration and exploitation within their territory.

2016

Girls play with a water faucet which belong to the community. This rain water is collected and stored in tanks located on one of the adjacent mountains and then transported by pipes to most homes in the community.

2019

Jhonzu Machoa holds a purse at sunset. She is standing on one of the trails that runs along the Bobonaza River.

2019

Girls hold a baby in their arms. It is common for older sisters to take care of their young siblings.

2019

Tati Huiti balances on a hammock in the kitchen while her grandmother Magdalena Santi prepares dinner.

2016

Girls talk during a recess in one of Sarayaku’s primary schools.

2016

Children play in the Bobonaza River. This river is the main "road" that communicates this indigenous community with the nearest city of Puyo, which is located at around 5 hours upriver by motor boat.

2015

Dyana Malaver holds the head of a deer her father hunted the night before along the Rotuno River. The community takes from the jungle only what it needs to survive and makes use of everything: the meat and innards of animals are used for food, the skin to create tambourines, and the fur and feathers for festival costumes.

2019

A young man with his back painted with wituk an Amzonian pigment that comes from a local fruit. Wituk designs vary, but males generally decorate themselves with geometric figures characterized by thick lines that emulate natural textures, such as this spiderweb. These designs had previously served to insight fear in battle, but these days they are used for festivals and social protests.

2019

Hunting and fishing are primordial activities for survival. Starting at 8 years of age, boys join their fathers in these labors.

2017

A young boy wears a hat from which hangs a sun painted with wituk during the first day of the Uyantza Raymi or Hunting Festivities. This item was made by himself and it represents one of the most important deities within the Kichwa worldview.

2017

Portrait of Yaku Machoa in the town’s main square as he plays with leaves and branches at night. Yaku, who is albino, uses the leaves as if they were animal pelts, imitating the traditions of his elders who dress in real pelts after a hunt.

2019

Shayanna Santi plays with her mother’s cellphone while she lifts the dishes after dinner.Sarayaku has an Satellite Internet access point, commonly known as Wayusa Net, from where they inform about the news of the community.

2019

Sumak Warmi (Main woman) pageant during the Pachamama festivities. The girls that participate are 18 years old in average. They are elected based on their knowledge of local history.

2019

A chonta tree, whose wood is one of the hardest of the Amazon Rainforest, is decorated with gifts for the Sarayaku women during the Pachamama festival. To get those gifts, they have to cut down the tree with a machete. Each one is allowed to give it just one hit and thus they take turns among all the women of the town. The woman, whose hit is the one which cuts down the tree, has the right to be the first to choose her gift.

2016

Andrea Cuji holds her daughter Shayanna near the family chacra. Chacras are small plots of land in the middle of the jungle where families grow their own food. Among the most popular crops is green plantain, which accompanies almost every meal, and yucca, an indispensable ingredient of chicha.

2016

A small plane prepares to take off from the airstrip in Sarayaku. The flight between Sarayaku and the city of Shell takes about half an hour. The most common transport between Sarayaku and the city remains the motor boat.

2019

Irapay Santi sleeps after playing with her mother’s rubber boot. Due to humidity and abundance of insects, this kind of boots are primordial in order to walk through the jungle.

2019

Humberto Santi hides his face from the light of a flashlight. Due to their isolation from the national power grid, the Sarayaku community primarily receives its power from solar panels and, to a lesser extent, small gas-burning power plants and batteries.

2019

Lesli Cisneros on her way to a family event at her school. Her elaborate makeup, done with wituk, combines geometric and astronomical designs on her forehead, with traditional western techniques around her lips.

2019

A girl plays in a tree along the Bobonaza River on a hot afternoon. This river is the community’s primary point of access to the city of Tena.