The Huaorani
Introduction
The Huaorani are an indigenous group living in the eastern part of Ecuador who rely on the rainforest to survive. They revere the jaguar and call themselves, Huaorani which means "human beings" or "the people", and refer to everyone else as cowode or "non-humans". It is only known through their own folklore that they migrated from "down river" a long time ago, "fleeing the cannibals".
They speak a language unrelated to any other. In the Ecuadorian headwaters of the Amazon, they comprise about 1,500 people and live in up to 24 temporary settlements in an area of almost 20,000 sq. km, completely covered by rainforest.
For centuries the Huaorani have defended themselves against surrounding related and alien tribes/groups, and gold and rubber prospectors.
Lifestyle
The Huaorani are characterised by their self-sufficient life off and in the rainforest and they practise a sustainable economy, i.e. the natural resources are not over-exerted.
As hunters and gatherers they are semi-nomads. They normally live in their small settlements - surrounded by vegetable gardens in which they grow manioc, maize, peanuts, sweet potatoes, chilli, and fruit. After ten years normally they move on.
They live in decentralised sub-settlements, a two-day walk from each other – a refuge in case of danger or when their resource basis is diminishing.
Their egalitarian social system does not know a permanent "above" and "below" nor discrimination against women. The duties/obligations of the individual are seen as equal for the livelihood and survival of the whole community.
Up until four decades ago the Huaorani still used stone axes and maintained a thoroughly traditional hunter and gather lifestyle in their extremely isolated and monkey-rich rainforest haven.
However, in the 1950s all of this changed. First the missionaries came. Then came the demand to find new oil reserves. 1,200 Huaorani live right on top of one of Ecuador's biggest oil deposits and they have been forced to deal with the encroachment of oil companies on the land they have called home for at least a millennia.
However, like indigenous people all over the world who learn that they have natural resources other nations want, they are forced by those who make the rules to adapt as best they can.
One Huaorani clan, the Tagaeri, has moved deeper into the rainforest to shun all contact with the outside world. Others have adopted ecotourism as a way to maintain control over their land, culture and resources.
Oil Industry Impacts
The Huaorani have had to deal with the disastrous consequences of polluted oil in 600 to 1,000 open basins. People living near the lower parts of the rivers are suffering from skin diseases, loss of hair, sore throats, diarrhoea and illnesses that were unknown to them before. They have also been affected by diseases brought into the area by missionaries, oil workers, colonialists and the first tourists against which they are not immune and have no natural remedies.
About half of the Huaorani population died in the 1960s.
The Huaorani do not get any compensation for the loss of their land or culture, for the damage to their health and they get no share of the income from oil and timber production. A Huaorani once said: "We are confronted with problems from all sides... We have to protect ourselves until we reach the forest where we are safe." But a majority of the Huaorani is prepared - literally and figuratively - "to attack with spears from all sides", exactly the way they have always done when their way of life was threatened.
Since 1990 the Huaorani territory (i.e. the 6,100 sq. km) has had the legal status of a "homeland", a "reserva", which gives the Huaorani a guarantee to maintain their way of life. But since the use of the subsurface is reserved to the state, the Huaorani have no say with regard to the exploitation of oil and any opposition towards oil exploitation is sanctioned with the loss of the homeland status. With the assistance of local lawyers, local and international non-government organisations the Huaorani are trying to pinpoint the contradiction and force the oil companies to repair the damage as well as to obstruct new prospecting and drilling of boreholes.
Want to learn more?The Huaorani
Trekking through History: The Huaorani
Living with the Huaorani
Tiguino
