Reviving Indigenous Amazonian Women's Sacred Arts

We hear a lot about extinction these days. Often, the extinction of human communities—their languages, myths, arts, ecological knowledge, and memories—are left out of those conversations.

The Secoya are a community of <500 indigenous peoples living in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Their cultural heritage is at the brink of disappearing due to logging, forced religious acculturation, and many other forces which make maintaining a harmonious relationship with their landscape difficult.

Please join me in supporting one of the most beautiful, profound initiatives I know of, which is working to revive the Secoya's cultural heritage: Asociación Keñao. (I just published an interview with their co-founder Yadira Ocoguaje—ENG/ESP. Check it out!)

Asociación Keñao (https://kenao.org/) is an indigenous women's association made up of Secoya women. The Secoya are a small (but strong!) community to whom I owe a great deal for sharing their traditional medicines, myths, and open hearts with me over the last decade.

Like so many other indigenous peoples of the world's most biodiverse ecosystem—the Amazon—the Secoya have faced brutal Evangelization, land loss, oil spills, deforestation, racism, sexism, and more. Most youth have left their villages, seeking jobs with extractive companies (logging, oil, palm oil plantations). However, a new wave of activism and ancestral pride has been rekindled in the small community of Siekoya Remolino, thanks to Asociación Keñao.

"We call ourselves Keñao after our word for little ant. Ants, like indigenous women, carry the world on their shoulders—their families, their forests. Together, we can move more than we thought was possible" says Secoya artist and activist Yadira Ocoguaje.

Please join me in raising funds for this group of Amazonian women and youth, who are protecting their unique cultural heritage by cultivating their ancient crafts, traditional ecological knowledge, and natural products. I know they will take good care of every penny, putting everything towards supporting their community and future generations.

Your donation will make possible:

This project means the world to me. Your gift shows your appreciation for resilient, creative stewards of the great Amazon Rainforest!

Love y deojí,

Sophia

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More information about Raiz Foundation Inc: Raiz is a US based non-profit entity created to support work in Latin America associated with:

Providing cost-effective, practical approaches to alleviate humanitarian crises caused by natural disasters; Supporting indigenous peoples seeking to protect and reclaim ancestral territories; Providing indigenous communities with education respectful of native culture; Supporting conservation and sustainable use of fragile ecosystems; Reducing poverty in marginalized communities.