Ethno-Botanical Parque Omaere
From CFI
The Potential Indigenous People’s Exchange and Research Project
The P.I.P.E.R. Project
Ethno-Botanical Parque Omaere
Puyo, Ecuador
In 1993, the Omaere Foundation was formed to establish a park on 15 hectares that were purchased on the outskirts of Puyo, in Amazonian Ecuador, with the goal of communicating to the general public (and especially to students) the importance of plants to the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. The land was then a pasture for milk cows and had been clear-cut of timber and planted with pasture grass. The goal was to reforest the land with plants that are medicinal, edible, ceremonial, and used for construction and are endemic to the indigenous people of the area. This dream came true, through the help of a great number of people and organizations. The word "Omaere" means "forest" in the indigenous Huaorani language.
In 2000 Parque Etnobotánico Omaere was illegally taken over and occupied by the Kichwa Organization OPIP (Organizacion de Pueblos Indigenas de Pastaza) and much work was lost. The park went without maintenance, all the equipment was taken (including an entire building) and park attendance fell to zero after three years, and then abandoned. Current President and co-founder Teresa Shiki re-claimed the park and set about repairing the damage and encouraging attendance. Teresa is a Shuar healer, environmental activist and social educator who maintains and teaches the cultural history of plant medicine within the indigenous communities. Since the reclaiming of the park in March of 2004 the 3 traditional houses has been repaired, park attendance is increasing and park trails are being repaired and reopened.
Parque Omaere sponsors training and seminars that relate to the education and preservation of indigenous culture. Youth under the age of 12 years are free and older students half price, large families and groups receive a 20% discount and with enough notice school groups are free. Each group has a guide that points out and explains the beneficial plants and their importance to indigenous culture and the cultures of the Andes. Each trail through the park leads through a different habitat and has a variety of different plants in each zone. After being freed from the cattle the old forest has reasserted itself to blend with the planted species to form a naturally functioning system. There is great similarity and yet stark differences between the various areas of the park.
The preservation of indigenous culture is equal to the preservation of Plant Wisdom at Parque Omaere. As the Amazonian people are exposed to modern consumer culture they are forgetting much of their ancient knowledge. Religious groups working in the territories support and promote this severing of the ancient ways. The conversion to Catholicism and Christianity has dramatically altered village life from the traditional. Young men are told that they should not have long hair and wear it in their traditional style, people are told not to use the plant medicine but to rely on the pharmaceutical drugs they offer, told their philosophy and native religion is false, they are told that their native dress and language mark them as uncivilized savages. They are told that the modern world will never help them unless they become “more like” the people in the modern world. The amount of knowledge lost in the last generation is staggering and pressure to separate these people from their cultural roots mounts every day. This is why places such as Parque Omaere are so important with the visits to traditional houses, stories about each culture and exposure to the many uses for medicinal plants. The guides and the forest help people to connect with their heritage and cultural roots.
A major effect of the Evangelization of the Amazon has been to leave many of the communities without adequate medical help, or supplies. As the plant knowledge disappears (potentially forever) and the communities become ever more dependent on outside aid for survival the overall health of the people declines. Diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, birth defects and other medical conditions are now common throughout territory where they were unheard of before. Flying supplies out to the communities is expensive and after making the people dependent on their drugs a good source of income for the owners of the airplanes. This increases the pressure on the communities to have income sources to pay for the medicine, hospital fees, food, clothes, cooking supplies and transportation. As medicine supply cabinets sit empty in the communities, guides at Parque Omaere teach visitors about the benefits of using the native plant medicines. It is a raced to save and teach this knowledge before the civilized world stamps out the last few remaining plant healers.
Shamanism has long been called black magic, occult, evil and the work-of-the-devil and has been targeted by all monotheistic religions of the world. In this day of civilization and enlightenment most of the world’s people do not have adequate health care and many have no access to health care at all. The ability to travel between the worlds to heal a patient, get important information for the community, or help in some other spiritual fashion is the domain of the shaman. Healers understand and use the life energy but do not leave this world as the shamans do. The Amazonian people have been guided, taught and fed by the wisdom of the rainforest and the plants that grow within.
When asked shamans and healers will both say that it was the Ayahuasca vine that taught them about the plant medicine and how to communicate with the plant kingdom. For thousands of years this system of knowledge has served the communities of the Amazon. If this system did not work the people would have either died out or found something that did work. To say that this source of knowledge and healing is the work of the devil is to close the door on a Natural Wisdom that surpasses our own and could help us lead healthier lives.
Parque Omaere is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of this knowledge to future generations of indigenous people. As this matches the philosophy of the PIPER Project we will be continuing to build on this relationship. Vincent spent close to two months at Omaere working with the restoration of the grounds and learning from Teresa Shiki. The PIPER Project is very grateful to Teresa and Parque Omaere for their support, knowledge, the introductions to other indigenous people and groups and taking Vincent in as a member of their family.
