Today, our culture is on the brink of disappearing. Once a culture of 200,000 people, now, between Ecuador and Peru, there are less than 600 Sapara left and only 5 still speak the language. 

OUR BELIEFS

One of the foundations of Sapara culture is mutual respect of each other and our environment.  Our world is based on recognizing the sacredness of all things – living or inanimate or even invisible.

We believe that everything has a spirit. The Sapara work in the Spirit and Dream world and know that the Earth, rivers, trees, and all things have a spirit just like us human beings. We understand that we are not superior, nor are we owners of the land or the forest. We are equal to all other life.

We live in relationship with the forest and maintain a spiritual connection to the forest spirits to maintain a good relation with our environment. Part of our relationship to the forest is understanding the plants as equal beings and understanding how they can be food, medicine, sacrament or other use. Rather than understanding our environment as distinct and separate, we see the holistic value in everything so we don’t harvest any plant or hunt any animal without recognizing that there is a limit to how much we can take and how often in order to maintain balance and good relations with our environment.

SAPARA LANGUAGE

Thanks to our ancestral wisdom, we managed to develop a very precise language and culture to describe our environment. We have a unique semiotics that allows us to have a deep understanding of the plants and animals of the Amazon. Through our oral tradition, we collect knowledge in stories, legends, songs and rituals forming a complete and comprehensive cultural heritage. For the Sapara people, our language is our memory and defines our identity.

MODERN DAY CHALLENGES 

For thousands of years, the Sapara have lived in harmony with nature, passing down our culture and traditions through oral storytelling. That is until serious events occurred that have decimated our population in an alarming way: war with the Incas, arrival of the Spanish, and the exploitation of rubber in the jungle in more recent years. For this reason, our people married Kichwas, Mestizos and Achuar, and we began to lose our language.

The Sapara culture faces serious threats of extinction, due to the declining population size (300 people in Ecuador and less than 300 people in Peru). 

Since 2012, the Saparas have been threatened by new oil extraction projects generated by the State and by transnational companies that seek to exploit oil blocks in our territories. If that were to happen, our forests, biodiversity and culture would disappear.

THE ANSWER 

The young Sapara generation have decided to change history, save our world and preserve our traditions. For this reason, we Saparas opened the doors of our territory to share our ancestral knowledge, customs, stories, food and experiences with friends from the outside world. We also began leading events online and in person around the world to share our wisdom.

To learn more about the Sapara, please explore some of these resources:

Libro Sapara

ANDRADE, C.  (2001). Kwatupama Sapara.  Palabra zápara. Puyo: ANAZPPA, Ediciones Abya-Yala.

BIlHAUT, A.  (2011). El sueño de los Záparas: patrimonio onírico de un pueblo de la Alta Amazonía.  Quito: FLACSO Sede Ecuador, Ediciones Abya-Yala.

MOYA, A.  (2007). Sapara.  Los aritiakus, hijos e hijas del mono colorado.  Quito: Editorial Voluntad, UNESCO.