Living in the Cordillera del Cóndor, Morona-Satiago department, Ecuador, the Maikiuants Shuar live in harmony with their culture and environment. It is a life of plenty reflected in this Shuar phrase: taramak matsamat. Unity and pride are fundamental values for them.
As custodians of the planet’s green lung, they have all too often been discredited. Since the year 2000, they have been compelled to organize and have created the first indigenous self-government in Ecuador. Today, external pressure from the mining industry constantly jeopardizes their freedom.
In order to train future generations to their culture and to its defense, the Maikiuants community, working hand in hand with the El pueblo shuar Arutam organization, have created the Plan de vida del pueblo shuar Arutam project. With this name, Arutam, one of the entities of their animistic spirituality, they have decided to create a school of life. Situated in the heart of the community, its purpose is to teach Shuar culture to the new generation.
Goals
The El pueblo shuar Arutam indigenous organization offers a high-quality program meeting the criteria of Shuar life and national education.
• Teaching strategies consistent with the criteria of national education. This allows the children to go to town and communicate in Spanish. With their knowledge of the outside world, they are holding all the cards to defend and promote their territory.
• A teaching curriculum based on Shuar culture, focusing on territory, ancestral knowledge, fellowship and harmony with the natural world.
The school has been fulfilling its mission since 2014. The El pueblo shuar Arutam organization now needs to expand the school. The goal is to accommodate the children of neighboring communities in order to offer them an appropriate, local education. In this way, young people don’t need to leave their own village to go and study in town under an educational curriculum unsuited to their culture.
All in all, a thousand families from forty-five communities belong to the El pueblo shuar Arutam organization.
The goal is for these families to benefit from a Shuar autonomous education within the Maikiuants community.
People in charge
The El pueblo shuar Arutam association, together with the explorer-reporter Julien Defourny.
During his expedition in the Americas by bike and kayak, Julien went to meet the Maikiuants Shuar for part of his documentary film, Voices from the Americas. Initially kept away from the community, he gradually managed to get accepted and developed a profound connection with these men and women. Moved by their story, he feels concerned by their fight against the mining industry. Intending to protect the beauty of a multicultural world and the beautiful Amazon, he made a short film entitled Maikiuants, an endangered paradise. Now, a few years later, Julien has remained active with the Maikiuants community, through his support for their school for good living project.