A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Organization of the Huaorani Nation of the Ecuadorian Amazon

The Huaorani are one of the most fabled nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Reams of writing - part anthropological, part touristic, and part environmentalist -- have been produced about their folkways, their hunting, and their bravery. Writers never fail to mention the spears and blow guns of the Huaorani. Sometimes they are called "savages." Author/activist Joe Kane wrote a sensitive book about them by that name, using the term in full irony.

Children with oil on their hands.

The Huaorani once numbered in the tens of thousands and possessed a much more extensive territory than they do today. Today they number only around 2,000, and their territory continues to face the threat of oil development and colonization. The Huaorani occupy a Massachusetts-sized portion of some of the most remote territory in the central and northeastern part of the Oriente. Their traditional lands overlap with Yasuni National Park, which covers part of Pastaza and Orellana provinces.

Huaorani lands situated in the northern provinces of the Oriente were severely affected early on, and today six oil concession blocks overlap Huaorani territory. The block that has already done the most damage, and that has been the focus of the most Huaorani resistance, is Block 16. Part of Block 16 is in Yasuni, a "protected" zone.

For the Huaorani, the history of the last three decades has been one of encroachment on their land by oil companies and usurpers, both Mestizo colonists and other indigenous groups alike. Contamination and loss of hunting grounds have caused the Huaorani to flee from advancing "civilization," while they simultaneously fight a rearguard battle to preserve some vestige of their autonomy.

An ongoing problem for the Huaorani has been the lack of cultural preparedness for dealing with the oil threat. Spears, clubs, and the courage of a hunter are not adequate to face the modern corporate incursion onto Huaorani territory. The Huaorani organization ONHAE (Organization of the Huaorani Nation of the Ecuadorian Amazon) was formed relatively late in the history of resistance to oil development, and it has taken time for its activists to learn to effectively withstand the maneuvers of what they simply call "the Company."

In 1990, the Huaorani were granted communal legal title to over 600,000 hectares of their territory, in the largest title grant to that date. However, this is only around one third of traditional Huaorani land. And due to the Ecuadorian government’s constitutionally-based claim to subsoil minerals, the Huaorani did not receive true autonomy with their titles. Not only do they not own the oil under their ground, but conditions attached to the title agreement forbid them to obstruct oil development, and prohibit them from receiving any royalties from the oil.

In 1991, the Huaorani responded to the impact of oil development by forming ONHAE. ONHAE works to unite Huaorani communities, and conducts pressure campaigns against the government, criticizing them severely for negotiating with the oil companies without the involvement of the Huaorani. The organization demands that the oil companies clean up areas that they have polluted, and calls for assistance in education, development, and health care projects.

The ongoing assault of the world’s oil companies outmatches the Huaoranis’ fierceness. They will continue to struggle for their survival, but in order to preserve their homelands and traditions they must, paradoxically, adopt modern ways just to be able to preserve some part of their territory and culture.