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Savages,
by Joe Kane.
On a recent class trip to Ecuador's Oriente, we were able
to visit a Huaorani settlement in the Yasuni
National Park. Any ideas of seeing indigenous peoples
"on their own turf" were immediately scuttled
by the pervasive presence of oil production, from roads
to fenced-off compounds. Across the street (a completely
foreign phrase for the Huaorani before oil was discovered
and drilled on their land) from the settlement, acres of
rain forest was felled for even more drilling. Our meeting
with the group consisted of an exchange of songs (they did
war songs, we did a Christmas song and a Beatles tune) in
one of their traditional, thatch-covered structures. But
the giddiness during their performance and the small concrete
block buildings ringing the one we were inside gave an unpleasant
feeling to the whole affair. It didn't feel authentic.
This book by writer and adventurer Joe Kane helps to illuminate
the characteristics of the Huaorani and the events that
led up to that present-day situation.
By the time Kane met members of the Huaorani, oil exploration
and drilling were already taking place in the Oriente. Between
that meeting and the end of the book, the Huaorani were
given title to a large area of land in Yasuni only to have
it thrown open for oil exploration, something they tried
to stop. (In Ecuador's laws, indigenous groups only have
surface rights.) The situation could be best described
as prolonging the inevitable: Ecuador's primary export was,
and is oil (making up approximately half of its GDP), so
the government was not going to place a moratorium on drilling
for a group that comprises an infinitesimally small fraction
of the country's population. Fight the Huaorani did, but
as Joe Kane documents they didn't necessarily know how to
fight against enemies like governments and corporations.
Spears might instill fear but they ultimately work against
the group in the long run.
Kane's first-hand account illustrates the conditions of
the rain forest and the difficulty in surviving in it, but
he also shows how the Huaorani are of the forest,
in ways that most Westerners probably wouldn't guess. A
good example is "grandfather" Mengatohue walking
Kane through the forest and pointing out many of the plants,
not all growing naturally, without human aid. What we realize
is that the Huaorani cultivate the forest, just
not in the way we think of the word, via clearing and planting.
So through this and other examples, the reader sees the
disparity between the Huaorani and who they are up against;
it almost seems like an unfair fight. But over time they
learn, like the groups in Suzanne Sawyer's Crude
Chronicles, how to make their voice heard and get
something out of it (schools and supplies, for example),
while preserving their dignity, if not their way of life.
While neither thorough nor academic -- and falling prey
to mythologozing the Huaorani and oversimplifying their
conflict with the Company -- Kane's account illustrates
the complexities of a cultural clash and the struggles of
one group trying to influence the other.
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