Imagine that you don’t own a car. None of your neighbors do, either. Imagine that no one owns a car because there are no roads. There are no roads because you use the river in front of your village for transportation by canoe, or you walk through the jungle to get where you’re going. There are no stores, so you eat what you grow in your garden, or the chickens you keep, or what you hunt in the forest or fish from the river.
Although this may sound like a way of life from the distant past, it’s the present-day lifestyle of the Achuar tribe, deep in the Amazon rainforest, who I was privileged to visit while in Ecuador with the Pachamama Alliance at the end of September. One of the only nods to modernity in the small village of 21 families we visited is the airstrip that has been cleared, only large enough for very small planes to arrive and provide a link to the rest of the world. The nearest airport is an hour’s flight north – in the town of Shell, named, yes, for the oil company that threatens the very existence of the ancestral homelands of these people.
Their land is pristine, original-growth rainforest. Not a single piece of garbage floats in the river, nor litters the paths. Their connection with the life force and spirit of the trees, the animals and the river is the bedrock of their worldview. I have never experienced a culture with such a light footprint on the earth. I am embarrassed by my own, in comparison.
While visiting, our group of 13 women from all across the US took part in some of their daily rituals – one of which included rising at 3:00 am to gather with the family to drink ceremonial guayusa tea, share dreams (great emphasis is placed on dreams and their interpretation), and learn how the elders pass their values and culture down to their children during this time of day.
The Pachamama Alliance is helping the Achuar and other indigenous tribes protect their lands from the extractive industries – oil, gas, minerals -- that want to turn these lands into profit centers for their corporations, completely trashing the environment in the process and destroying the way of life that has been passed down for millenia. The Achuar are a strong, proud warrior culture, and refuse to allow any industry on their land. Their battles for sovereignty, and that of the other tribes, are happening in courts across the nation of Ecuador, and some positive precedents have been set. But it is an on-going battle as some corporations just do as they please in such a vast area with little oversight. I am in awe of these people’s courage, and have a much deeper understanding now of the uphill battles they face, as well as the importance for all of our planet that they persevere, and keep control of these remaining untouched tracts of land where the headwaters of the Amazon River originate. This journey has touched me more deeply than almost any I’ve done; I’m having a hard time putting the experience into words to share. Maybe the pictures will speak for me?
