Yawanawá Reforestation Project in Mutum (Brazil)

Help the Yawanawá tribe in the brazilian rainforest with their reforestation project. Their vision is to become completely self-sustainable again.

The indigenous tribe Yawanawá from Mutum (Acre, Brazil) started to reforest a part of their lands. As over the centuries some of the plants that their ancestors used and lived from, disappeared as also the knowledge on how to grow and take care of them.




In the Yawanawá culture, food is still received as something sacred, as medicine, and treated with lots of value and care. It represents their culture and ancestral knowledge of healing and living in peaceful relation and balance with the forest. For various different situations they have specific types of food, that strengthen and bring meaning to them.

With the vision to become completely self-sustainable as soon as possible, they opened to the idea to also plant and learn about some other plants, mainly fruit trees which they added to their diet in the last decades. To have regular excess to them, they needed to travel far away from their villages and spend a lot of money. The vision is to create a forest garden which will serve them through out the year with enough food for a balanced diet, especially for the children and their healing works and spiritual diets.

Listen to Julia Yawanawá talking about the project  (with optional  subtitles)




Listen to Julia Yawanawá talking about the traditional plants  (with optional  subtitles)

They already started with little resources to plant and work in the fields that are destined for the reforestation. To continue this project our help and support is needed now. Especially for the maintenance more tools are needed. The project in Mutum is already inspiring their families from other Yawanwá villages to start making better use of their forest and become self-sustainable. And work on recapturing their ancient traditional ways with traditional food.

Presentation of the seedlings and the field  (with optional subtitels)





As in the eye of the world wide crisis we are facing, it becomes even more urgent and fundamental to protect and support them and their project, as all Yawanawá villages are under quarantine right now to protect their people. This also means they are not able to access any goods from outside of their traditional villages. And it is not clear when they will be able to do so again.

All indigenous tribes in the forests, mountains and deserts of our world are facing a time of great fragility and challange as their systems are endangered, partly destroyed, and continiously put under pressure by our `western way` of living. With the arrival of the pandemic this pressure becomes even greater then ever before.

Please help us to help them protect their lands, their families, their tradition, their wisdom and ancient ways of taking care of the relation between human beings and nature.

Please share this information with your family and friends. Together we can do a lot, so lets leave no one behind and share our resources wisely in this moment of earth birthing herself into a new time. An ocean is made of many little drops and so is a successful crowdfounding project.

In the campaign video you hear Matsini Yawanawá spiritual and worldly leader of village Mutum, sharing his message with you. In the other videos you see Julia Yawanawá, who founded, guides and coordinates the Reforesting Project. See all videos in our YouTube channel 




Please help us with your donation and share the link of the campaign.

With deep gratitude for the Yawanawá people and all guardians of earth in this moment of time.

May we all stay healthy, happy and firm in our hearts and bodies.


ABOUT THE YAWANAWÁ TRIBE

The Yawanawá are the legal guardians of almost half a million acres of Brasilian Amazon. There are over 1,000 Yawanawá, living in 8 tribal villages along the Gregório River.

The Yawanawá and their allies are dedicated to developing a model of sustainability that allows them to protect their lands and engage with the outside world on their own terms, without compromising their cultural and spiritual identity. The tribe has been working tirelessly to increase territory, reinvigorate Yawanawá culture, and establish economically and socially empowering relationships with the outside world.

They plant and hunt their own food and live in wooden houses, their pharmacy is the forest. Due to a history with missionaries, part of their culture got lost and devalued. Though today they recaptured a lot of their tradition and are very grateful and proud to be able to share this beautiful treasure. Yawanawá roughly translates to "people of the wild boar".



WHO WE ARE

In the beginning of this year a group from all around Europe followed the invitation of the Yawanawá people, and gathered in one of their villages, called Mutum by the Gregorio River, deep in the Brazilian Amazon forest.

We each came to follow a personal call of going into a deep time of personal healing, study, witnessing and learning from this ancient culture. Learning from people which kept their relation to the earth and their ancestors alive in their hearts and in the way they live with nature.

They introduced us to many treasures by sharing their wisdom, lifestyle and the visions of their elders with us with a lot of kindness and care. They also introduced us to the project they just had started and asked for our help and support... to build a bridge between these worlds.



So this crowdfounding was born to unite our forces and create this bridge. From the center of Europe and where ever this messages may reach, to a village deep inside the rainforest. A direct bridge into the heart and lungs of Mother Earth.

Foto/Video credit: Nemanja Sonero, Julia Yawanawá & the team
Video text translation: Bastiaan Kamavena
Coordination: Jonas, Bastiaan, Ambika & the team
Text: Ambika