1. Remembering Grandfather and the Living Forest
The speaker offers a heartfelt tribute to her grandfather and grandmother, recalling their teachings about nature, safety, and interconnected life. She introduces the idea of the living forest and her grandfather’s wisdom as a guiding force.
Apaya, grandfather, I think about you often.You were never a man of many words, but your tender eyes expressed love and wisdom that expands beyond the universe itself.You and my grandmother taught me to listen to the trees, the birds, to respect the river, the mountains, and the wetlands.I remember you made me feel safe when the storm came.And you gave my spirit strength when I was giving birth to my son.You are here with us in our dreams, in every conversation, in your grand and great grandchildren, in the forest.You are here everywhere, all at once.
I remember floating down this river with my grandparents.My grandfather would fish and my grandmother tended the fire.Millions of stars would blanket us as we slept on the beach.I was taught that everything is alive and interconnected.They called it Gaussaka, the living forest.
My grandfather was a yacht.The one who knows.The one that keeps the balance.The one with the wisdom.
2. Ancestral Wisdom and Colonial Harm
She explains how a childhood vision shaped her family’s relationship with the forest and warned of future consequences if the earth is mistreated. The chapter shifts to the damage caused by outsiders, extractivism, and the fragmentation of land, language, and culture.
When he was a little boy, he had a vision when drinking Hayawaza that shaped my family and the forest for generations to come.
He told us that if we are careless with mother earth, future generations will bear the consequences.
We are made of stories, but our stories have always been told by foreigners who don't know us or don't know our lands.They wrote about us, about the savages, the Indians, and they came for the forest giants, for the rubber, oil, and minerals.
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land, our language, culture, memories and hayawasa are inseparable.When these are fragmented, we too are fragmented.And the acceleration of extractivism and commodification of our lands and cultures are pushing us to the brink.
3. Defending Land Against Extraction
The speaker describes the arrival of oil companies, violence against her community, and the commercialization of sacred indigenous knowledge. She then recounts how her people resisted, won legal protection for their territory, and defended their rights in court.
When I was a little girl, the oil companies came to my community, backed by the Ecuadoran government and the military.They threatened us, beat our leaders.They cut down sacred trees and buried 1,400 kgs of explosives on our sacred lands.
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Every year, thousands of people visit the Amazon to seek this worldrenowned brew that people are tweeting and Instagramming about.It is being taken out of the forest to be commercialized and exported all over the world in the name of healing.But commodifying indigenous lands, sacred plants, and ancestral knowledge is the opposite of healing.It is extractive.
My people have had an intrinsic relationship with our territory.It is our bodies, earth, rivers, plants, laughter, songs, art and community.It is us.We have endured a long history of extractivism and colonialism and Hayawaska is part of this resistance.With the guidance of our elders, my community successfully kicked out the oil company.and took the Ecuadoran government to an international court where my grandfather and my family members testified on my people's spiritual relationship with the land.
The court ruled Ecuador guilty of violating our rights.My grandfather's teachings together with my people's resistance led to the legal protection of our home, 140,000 hectares of land, a gift to future generations.
4. Healing Land and Future Generations
She closes by rejecting endless extraction and calling for a new relationship with Indigenous peoples based on land, autonomy, and story. The final lines return to her grandfather’s teachings, emphasizing that healing the Earth is the path to healing all life.
This endless taking has to stop.The world needs a new relationship with indigenous people.
My people's existence depends upon our right to land and autonomy.Our right to reclaim our story, including the story about Hayawasa and our relationship to it.
Apaya grandfather, you taught us that the forest is our family, that we are rooted to our ancestors.So as long as the grand trees stand tall in the living forest, you will continue to live.You have shown us that if healing is what we are looking for, we must heal the land and all life on Earth.
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