WHO ARE THE SECOYAS?
WHO ARE THEY?
The Secoyas are an ancestral culture of the Amazon that inhabit it for more than 5 thousand years. The Secoyas are an ethnic minority with only 700 people in Ecuador and 1000 in Peru. They are one of the 8 indigenous peoples that live in Ecuador's Amazon.
This tribe has a complex culture characterized by hunting and farming practices and also by the practice of shamanism and the use of hallucinogenic plants in their rituals. They obtain most of their resources from the jungle where they extract not only food but medicines and materials to make a number of useful objects. They maintain a unique culture and traditions that identify them as a people different from all others. The Secoya people live in Ecuador along the Aguarico River and in Peru along the Putumayo, Napo and Lagartococha rivers. They prefer to live along the small rivers of the jungle where the waters are calmer and where they take advantage of existing natural resources. They use the rivers to mobilize and to fish, so they are excellent builders of canoes and good travelers. |
CHALLENGES FACED BY THE SECOYA COMMUNITY
The Oil Industry
For the Secoyas, contact with the Western world has always been an issue. One of the biggest problems they have had is the exploitation of oil. They live on the Shushufindi River which is one of the most polluted areas because of oil activities, especially those that were made from the 1970s to the present day where very basic technologies were used. Today many Ecuadorian Secoyas suffer from cancer or have died from cancer.
|
African PalmAnother challenge facing the Secoyas is the massive destruction of the forests to which their culture has adapted for millennia. One of the important deforestation factors in the region is the cultivation of African palm.
Thousands of hectares of Secoya ancestral lands have been destroyed to plant African palms which not just destroy the forest but pollute the rivers because if the extensive use of pesticides. |
For these reasons, one of the biggest challenges facing the Secoyas is to adapt their culture to the changes that are to come. Education is the most important tool that can help the Secoya cope with changing times in better terms
Proudly powered by Weebly