The Piatua River as Living Cultural Heritage of Ecuador
BACKGROUND
The Piatua River is located within the ancestral territory of the Original People of the Kichwa Nationality of Santa Clara Canton (PONAKICSC) in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Piatua is sacred to the Kichwa people, and the source of life for the two Kichwa communities located on its shores. In a region plagued by oil and mining, the Piatua River has so far remained free of extractive industries and is one of the few remaining clean rivers.
However, now a new form of extraction threatens the river: a hydroelectric dam proposed by the electricity generation company Genefran S.A., which if it were to go ahead would destroy the river and its natural and cultural ecosystem.
Photo by Andrés Yépez, Time.
Without the prior, free, and informed consent of the indigenous people, in 2018 the company began construction of the hydroelectric dam. Faced with this, PONAKICSC made the decision to rise up, and eventually managed to get the machines off the construction site, after days of on-site protests, negotiations, and a blockade on the main highway. From there, the struggle moved to the provincial court where, in the first instance, the people lost.
The judge ruled in favor of the company, stating that there was no significant evidence of the existence of indigenous peoples in the river basins. When it was discovered that the judge had received bribes from the company, the case went to re-trial, in which Piatua was granted only partial protection. While the case awaits trial in the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, the Kichwa People of Santa Clara are working to achieve recognition of the river as Intangible Cultural Heritage at the national level to indisputably demonstrate their existence and ancestral connection with the river.
In recent years, a group of young people from PONAKICSC, Piatua Resiste has carried out a series of anthropological studies; interviewing the elders of the river communities, getting to know the river's powerful rocks and other sacred sites, and documenting the worldview and ways of life of the people of the Piatua River. However, national cultural heritage registration processes have made it difficult for the people to inscribe their own documents.
Therefore, on May 28, 2023 at a PONAKICSC assembly, the resolution was taken to seek the status of Cultural Heritage for the River through Self-Determination, which was approved unanimously.
In taking this resolution, the people have decided to exercise their right to self-determination and ask the Ecuadorian state to respect it and inscribe the river as cultural heritage, thus protecting it from extractive threats once and for all.
In the last months of 2023, Piatua Resiste in collaboration with PONAKICSC will carry out the final phase of anthropological research to verify and complement the data collected to date, and then complete the elaboration of a declaration of the intangible cultural heritage of the Piatua River, which will document the worldview of the Kichwa People of Piatua. The event of the declaration, scheduled for the beginning of 2024, will involve a presentation of the cultural heritage of Piatua in a live event, during which the stories of the river will be told by its bearers and transmitted around the world.
We are inviting volunteers to participate in the final anthropological fieldwork and donations to help us mobilize people and resources for the fieldwork and the declaratory event. We appreciate all contributions.
RELATED ARTICLES
In coordination with:
