Penti Baihua Interview Part 2/5

There are around 2,000 Huaorani in existence today. Their native lands are only a fraction of the size that they once were. Along the Via Tigüino, Colonist owned houses and farms are carved out of forest that once belonged to the Huaorani. Missionaries have made inroads into Huaorani culture, converting and relocating a large number of the population. Many of the young Huaorani are learning Spanish. In many cases, oil companies and missionaries create divisions among the Huaorani. Though many Huaorani are proud of their culture and resist change, others have given in to outside pressure and no longer live traditional lifestyles. Thus, each Huaorani community is like its own sovereign nation state; the Huaorani of the Western Orient in some cases only resemble the Huaorani of the Eastern Orient in name.
In one of the most remote regions of the Ecuadorian Amazon is the 758,051-hectare area of rainforest known as the "Intangible Zone." It is an area of jungle about the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. Inside the zone, there exists at least three Huaorani communities: Bameno, Gabaro and Bowanamo. The zone is supposed to be a refuge, void of any and all activity having to do with petroleum excavation and logging. This has not been and continues not to be the case.
The people of the Intangible Zone though are still living life styles that resemble those of their ancestors. The hunting is still good; the people chant; they dance and though their culture is changing, they are still proud to be Huaorani.
Also believed to live in this zone is the last known group of uncontacted Huaorani, the Tagaeri-Taromenane. In the case of the Tagaeri-Taromenane, one can only assume that they are living exactly or almost exactly the same as their ancestors did. Facing outside intrusion, The Tagaeri-Taromenane have been known to kill those that enter their territory uninvited. In 1987, they killed the Catholic priest Monseñor Labaca. Recently, the uncontacted group killed two loggers that came into their territory. The Tagaeri-Taromenane will no doubt further have to deal with external pressures from missionaries and oil companies: Jim Manley of the Mission Aviation Fellowship has been quoted as saying that "when a Tagaeri dies, he does not have the opportunity of going to heaven since he has not listened to the word of God."
Where the Tagaeri-Taromenane have had almost no contact with outsiders, the Huaorani of Bameno and Bowanamo have been exposed for thirty plus years to "the civilized world." Pressure mounts from this world. Oil companies want in. Loggers want wood and many of the Huaorani want what the outside world has to offer; whether it be rice, t-shirts, cigarettes or medical care many of the Huaorani of the Intangible Zone have already incorporated Western goods and practices into their native lifestyle; to continue to do this they need money.

Huaorani like Penti Baihua, the Bameno community coordinator and representative, seem to recognize the inevitability of their people's continued contact with the Western World. Realizing this, Penti and the Bowanamo community coordinator and representative, Otovo, also known as El Oso, have set out on separate endeavors that would allow them to interact with the Western World on their own terms, making a profit from their unique culture and knowledge, controlling the changes their culture undergoes. Through eco-tourism, Penti and Otovo hope to provide their communities with a source of income to rival the temptation of working with oil companies and loggers. Through their work, Penti and Otovo hope to preserve the Intangible Zone, to make sure that the forest remains pure and that the zone is truly intangible.
The people of Bowanamo and Bameno respect the right of the Tagaeri-Taremenone to remain isolated and they rightfully believe that tourism does not affect the uncontacted group.
Kimerling, Judith. "TRANSNATIONAL OPERATIONS, BI-NATIONAL
INJUSTICE CHEVRONTEXACO AND INDIGENOUS HUAORANI AND KICHWA IN THE AMAZON
RAINFOREST IN ECUADOR." AMERICAN INDIAN LAW REVIEW" (2007).
Mondragón, Martha L., and Randall Smith. Bete Quiwiguimamo. Quito, Ecuador: Centro de Investigación de los Bosques Tropicales CIBT, 1997.
To find out how you can help or to express interest in visiting the Huaorani email
pentibaihua@yahoo.es or
Huaorani1@gmail.com

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Huaorani
• Waorani
• Intangible
• Zone
• Ecuador
• Rain
• Forest
• Jungle
• Indians
• Tribes
• Kimerling
• Amazon
• Indigenous
• Penti

[Pantaleon70]

You have pointed the two menaces for native indigenous people of the Andes and Amazon : Oil Companies and Religious Missionaries .

[SouthernCOBoy]

Two other issues for these natives is that the Correa government wants free rights to the water and mining rights without the natives consent. So much for caring for the poor and the true natives of this country.

[ThemTheyHeShe]

translate? any one?

[offertorycardiacml]

The Oil companies are trying their best to stop free energy ideas from spreading to common ppl.

We need to put an end to this corruption ,start generating your own electricity.

Look for the LT MAGNET MOTOR in youtube video search. Join the Revolution!!

[1elgalle1]

esto es una mierda..arriba Huaronanis!

[1elgalle1]

es jodido esto de que alguien vive nace sus abuelos tatarabuelos generaciones de miles de años y ahora, esta basura capitalista q los echen como a perros, q se metean en su ecosistema a destruirlo ese territorio deberia ser suyo, o esta pobre gente no tiene derechos..aqui en españa puede venir la compañia mas rica del mundo y si el dueño no quiere la compañia SE JODE ..aunq normalemnete a ser capitalistas lo acabarian vendiendo y encima acabando con ls pulmones del plameta

[SouthernCOBoy]

Two more issues is that the Correa government wants the water rights and the mining rights without any say but these native peoples.