For those interested, the project I am moving to Ecuador to work on:


UNIVERSIDAD MAMALLACTA

The Universidad Mamallacta is an indigenous-run educational center being developed by Napo Runa Indians of the Ecuadorean Amazon, to help them keep their endangered traditional knowledge and rainforest way of life alive and to bring them the skills they want to have to deal with the modern world.

Teaching and learning will take place not only in classroom settings but out on the earth, in the real forest, and in real gardens, learning from local elders and teachers -- hands-on learning in indigenous forest practices, indigenous permaculture, medicinal plants, raising native rainforest animals, and practicing indigenous crafts, music and dance. The land itself will be a living classroom.

The Universidad Mamallacta will also teach skills of the modern world, such as computers and accounting, that local people want in order to manage local community-based ecotourism and other sustainable community enterprises. Having their own economic alternatives enables communities resist the pressure to cut down the forest for cattle raising or to sell out to petroleum companies.

The classrooms will be traditional Amazonian structures, circular in shape, with woven palm roofs and open walls that will be surrounded by flowering bushes designed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Students and teachers will sit in a sharing circle, surrounded by the sight and sound of the natural world.

The vision of the Universidad Mamallacta originated with the Mamallacta family, a family of traditional shamans. They say that the Indian people should not have to choose between traditional culture and modern technology -- that the tools of the modern world should not have to replace their culture, but rather could help them to defend their culture.

They also feel that their culture has much to offer to the outside world, and they want their school to be open to outside students, including students from other countries, who can teach their own skills in exchange for learning about the way of life of the Napo Runa.

The word "mamallacta" is not only the name of a family. The literal translation is "mother community." In modern Kichwa it means "country" or "nation," while to the Mamallacta family the true meaning of their name is "Mother Earth," since the Earth is the great Mother Community of life. Although other families and villages are involved, "Mamallacta" was a natural and appropriate choice for the name of this indigenous university.


* CULTURAL AND HISTORIC BACKGROUND *

THE NAPO RUNA PEOPLE

The Upper Napo area is within sight of the foothills of the Andes and several nearby volcanoes. It lies below a mountain pass where, in pre-Conquest times, highland Indians and rainforest Indians met to trade. Through that trade the Napo Runa have absorbed some highland Andean influence into their culture, including music and the Kichwa language. They have also absorbed the remnants of other Amazonian Indian tribes of the region who are otherwise extinct. This makes Napo Runa culture extraordinarily rich and varied.

The Upper Napo region is the most accessible part of the entire Amazon Basin. It was the first area of the Amazon penetrated by Europeans, and ancestors of the Napo Runa were the first Amazonian Indians to meet Europeans.

However, although the Napo Runa people have been in contact with Western society since the 1500s, their culture and their rainforest way of life was not significantly altered until the 1960s and 1970s. In those decades the Amazon region of Ecuador experienced a double blow: a government program that defined the Amazon rainforest as "unused" and encouraged colonization and deforestation by granting land title to any settler who came in and cut down the forest and put in cattle, and the discovery of petroleum in the Amazon and the beginning of oil exploitation. The destruction of the rainforest by colonists and oil companies, and the accompanying invasion of the rainforest by large numbers of non-Indian people, has had a tremendous impact on the last two generations of Napo Runa people. The younger generations are rapidly losing their culture and traditional knowledge.

That knowledge includes highly sophisticated traditional eco-human sciences. Like most Amazonian indigenous peoples, the Napo Runa are shifting horticulturalists, traditionally clearing a small area for gardening, cultivating it for a few years, and then reforesting the plot and clearing a new garden. The indigenous gardens themselves utilize sophisticated knowledge of companion planting -- which to western eyes, accustomed to mono cropping, appears "messy" and "unkempt." In reforesting, they take advantage of the increased sunlight to introduce plants that otherwise could not grow under the dense canopy of old-growth forest. They plant fruit and nut trees, medicinal plants, food for animals. Then as the jungle retakes the plot, it is rich with "wild" foods and medicines for humans and animals alike. There is a shifting cycle of old growth and various stages of secondary forest, creating maximum "edge effect," which promotes the richness and variety of ecosystems within an area. The traditional Amazonian way of cultivating the forest has been one of working in partnership with ecosystems rather than forcing something upon them. It is designed to increase the life-supporting capacity of the rainforest and enrich the biodiversity rather than to reduce it. Thus, the Amazon rainforest is a "cultivated forest," an ecosystem which since the Ice Age has been shaped by human participation and which would be very different without it. These ways were so effective that when the Europeans saw this rainforest that had been cultivated for thousand of years, they considered it as "virgin forest," "untouched by the hand of man."

Among the indigenous peoples of the Upper Amazon, the Napo Runa in particular are especially renowned for their extensive knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses. Many anthropologists believe that this is because, as one of the first Amazonian groups ever to come into contact with Europeans, the Napo Runa were among the first peoples to be exposed to Western diseases, and so they had to quickly discover new plants and treatments for the new diseases. Today, other Amazonian peoples who are coming into contact with non-Indians and new diseases for the first time depend on the Napo Runa for help.

But how did the Napo Runa learn these plants? How did they learn the ways of working in cooperation with the forest? The people of the Upper Amazon, and especially the Napo Runa people, are a people for whom plant
spirits are central. Shamanic healing with medicinal plants involves communicating with the plant spirits and understanding the plant's personality as well as with the personality of the sick person.

Vision plants such as Ayahuasca are consulted for healing and guidance, and the vision plants guide the healers to new healing plants. Shamans spend years learning many different levels of knowledge needed for many different levels of spiritual and physical healing.

THE CHALLENGE TODAY

This rainforest, this culture and this great body of spiritual and practical knowledge are now threatened. As the rainforest is destroyed by oil companies and colonists, its power places and its medicine plants are lost, and shamanic practice becomes impossible. The new influx of outside influences, and of schools that bring the message that Western culture contains all knowledge of value and that indigenous knowledge is useless, has caused a generational rift in the Napo Runa people.

When the government declared in the 1960s that the Amazon region was an unoccupied region and up for grabs, and that title would go to those who cleared the forest to raise cattle or sugar cane, the Upper Napo region was impacted earliest, because it is the most accessible part of the entire Amazon Basin. Many Napo Runa found themselves forced to adopt the practices the government required for land title -- deforestation for cattle -- in order to protect their own rights to their land,

Now cattle raising is being abandoned because the cattle pastures soon turn into swamps, and second-growth forest is taking over much of the formerly deforested areas. But now, two generations of Napo Runa people have grown up with a different way of life. The younger generations are losing their culture and identity, and are being taught by the schools, missionaries, and other institutions that their culture is inferior and has no value except as "folklore."

This story of cultural loss is familiar to most indigenous peoples. But unlike North American Indians, the Napo Runa people are only two generations removed from the generation that still lived the traditional way. And, like other Amazonian Indians who have come into contact with North American Indians, they recognize that the cultural destruction that has happened to North American people represents their own future. But those who know the value of their culture, such as the Mamallacta family, want to take the steps now to strengthen their people and culture so that they do not follow the same path to destruction.


* EXPECTED IMPACTS OF UNIVERSIDAD MAMALLACTA *

Community-controlled education strengthens the ability of indigenous peoples to determine their own future. Universidad Mamallacta will be a prototype for indigenous-controlled education that is firmly rooted in indigenous culture, values, and spirituality, that allows indigenous people to choose for themselves what knowledges from the outside world are valuable to them, and that allows indigenous people to exchange knowledge with the Western world on a mutually respectful, equal basis. It is "educacion para defender la cultura, no para deshacer la cultura" -- education to defend the culture, not undo the culture.

Expected impacts -- short and long-term -- include:

ECOLOGICAL

Promoting recovery of damaged forest

Developing teaching models of indigenous gardening in cooperation with nature, known in the modern world as "permaculture"

Training in the raising of native Amazonian animals such as tapir and capybara, which thrive in intact rainforest, as an alternative to cattle, which require deforestation to create pasture. These animals were traditionally hunted for meat, but have been depopulated due to colonization and habitat destruction,

Developing projects to repopulated endangered wildlife, such as macaws.

Creating economic rewards for resisting deforestation, by developing export markets for rainforest herbs and by increasing ecotourism in the area


ECONOMIC

Helping communities that are developing community based ecotourism programs by offering training in Accounting and Small Business Management

Developing export markets for Amazonian crafts, medicinal herbs, chonta flour and other rainforest products.

Increasing tourism as an economic base in the Archidona area.


MODERN TECHNOLOGY

Giving indigenous young people access to computers and computing skills.

Offering a living demonstration of eco-friendly technology such as solar panels, mini-hydroelectric generators and composting toilets, in beautiful buildings based on traditional Amazonian architecture.

Developing indigenous-controlled media by training indigenous people in the making of videos and creation of radio programs.


TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Helping the traditional sustainable ways of cultivating the forest survive to the next generations

Passing on the knowledge and active use of medicinal plants

Keeping Amazonian shamanism alive


MODERN SKILLS

Providing basic skills in literacy and arithmetic for indigenous people of all ages who desire them

Giving local carpenters and mechanics the opportunity to share their skills

Providing tutoring support for students in area primary and secondary schools

Preparing talented young people for higher education in Ecuador and abroad


ART

Revitalizing traditional crafts that use all natural materials, such as traditional ceramics, fiber weaving and seed crafts

Developing new traditions such as painting with natural plant pigments.

Revitalizing traditional music and dance

Creating galleries for indigenous artists.

Giving local guitarists, keyboard artists, flutists and drummers the opportunity to teach others


WOMEN

Helping women of several villages develop women's healing and midwifery centers, or "Hambi Wasi"

Supporting women's traditional arts, such as ceramics and women's medicinal gardens

Helping women develop leadership and visibility


PEDAGOGICAL INSTITUTE

Developing bilingual/bicultural materials and programs for use in local primary and secondary schools,

Training indigenous teachers to work in their own communities, offering quality education to children that will both respect and nurture their own culture and equip them to deal with the outside world.


LANGUAGE INSTITUTE

Working in partnership with an indigenous-run institute of languages that is independently being started nearby. The institute plans to teach all indigenous languages of Ecuador, plus Spanish and English.


INTERNATIONAL

Strengthening networks with indigenous people of other regions and other countries, by offering them the opportunities to come to Ecuador to study and to teach about their own cultures at Universidad Mamallacta.

Offering the opportunity to for international students to learn about Amazonian Indian history, culture, and science, to live in Napo Runa villages and experience the Napo Runa way of life, and to share their own skills with those who want to learn them.

Creating an international model of indigenous community-controlled education that exchanges knowledge with the outside world on a basis of mutual respect and equality.


PUBLICATIONS

The Napo Runa people and their neighbors have great desire to document their culture and create their own publications, and the Universidad Mamallacta will give them the opportunity to do it. We plan to tape classes, and then transcribe and edit the lectures into publishable form

We will be contracting with students to do research projects within their own communities (or, in the case of foreign students, within their homestay communities). Students will be learning from their own elders, and helping bring their wisdom to the rest of the world.

This documentation will be the foundation for constantly expanding curricula for the Universidad, for bilingual/ bicultural curricula for the local schools, and it will serve as a resource for foreign students and for international scholars in fields such as anthropology, biology, and sustainable development.

The documentation will also help us to make the case that non-indigenous colonists don't need to destroy the forest in order to live here. The colonists should have to learn from the ancient and successful practices of sustainability of indigenous people in order to be able to come live in the rainforest.

The documentation of indigenous sciences will also help to communicate to the younger generation that their own ancestral culture contains knowledge that are vitally important to the world.

The knowledge that is documented, and its benefits both material and nonmaterial, will belong entirely to the people from whom it comes. Since the Universidad will be under local indigenous control, all published materials that it produces will remain under local indigenous control.


SIZE

Universidad Mamallacta will begin on a 9-acre site. It will have one administration building (a secure modern building with solar power) and eight circular, open-walled classrooms with woven palm roofs and open walls that will be surrounded by flowering bushes designed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Students and teachers will sit in a sharing circle, surrounded by the sight and sound of the natural world.

The land itself will be a living classroom. Like much of the region, this site has in the past been deforested for cattle pasture. It will be used for model reforestation projects, for growing the medicinal plants which the students will learn, for the practice of traditional Indian gardening techniques, and for pilot projects of raising native Amazonian animals such as tapirs and capybaras.

STUDENTS

For the first three years we anticipate an average of 50 students per term from the local area, and 10 to 20 foreign students. Enrollment will grow as the capacity grows.

In addition, we will be offering support (tutoring, computers, etc.) to indigenous students who are attending other high schools, and we will be working with area primary schools to help them to introduce more indigenous culture into their curriculums.


* DEPARTMENTS *

Each department will have a chair who will contract with knowledgeable elders from the local communities, outside instructors, and others to teach courses in their areas of expertise. All of these subject areas have possible teachers available.

The Director of Research, Documentation, Publications and Curriculum Development will contract with researchers, including students at the Universidad, to do specific research projects for publication and curriculum development.


DEPARTMENT OF INDIGENOUS COSMOVISION AND HISTORY

Amazonian Cosmovision / Philosophy
Amazonian History
Amazonian Anthropology
Comparative Amazonian and Asian Philosophies
Andean Cosmovision / Philosophy
Andean History
Andean Anthropology
North American Indian Cosmovision / Philosophy
North American Indian History
North American Indian Anthropology
Indigenous History of the Americas

DEPARTMENT OF INDIGENOUS FINE ARTS

Napo Runa Dance
Napo Runa Music
Napo Runa Crafts
Amazonian Architecture
Painting with Natural Plant Pigments
Pastaza Runa Ceramics
Pastaza Runa Wood Scupture

DEPARTMENT OF INDIGENOUS ECOHUMAN SCIENCES

Rainforest Biology
Indigenous Gardening / Permaculture
Indigenous Reforestation Techniques
Raising Native Amazonian Animals

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HEALING

Medicinal Plants
Human Anatomy
Midwifery and Women's Reproductive Care
Shamanic Healing

DEPARTMENT OF MODERN EDUCATION

Literacy
Mathematics
Computers
Accounting and Small Business Management
Carpentry
General Mechanics: Motors
General Mechanics: Electronics
Guitar
Keyboard
Photography
Video Production and Editing
Acupuncture
Fish Farming
World Geography
Tutoring (for students in other area primary and secondary schools)


* LOGISTICS *

MARIPOSA VILLAGE

Universidad Mamallacta will have its center about 1 mile from the town of Archidona, in the Napo Runa village of Mariposa. Mariposa is not on the map, as it is a quaint and traditional village of about 50 people. It is the home of Elias, Ramon, Mercedes and Rita Mamallacta, all members of the founding board, and other members of the Mamallacta family.


ARCHIDONA

Archidona (population 8,000), in Napo province, is a quiet, old town located about 10 miles north of the provincial capital of Tena (pop 60,000). It was founded in 1538 as a Catholic mission. Until 1920, Archidona was the capital of the entire Ecuadorean Amazon. Today, Archidona serves as a center for the indigenous villages of western Napo province. Despite the influx of non-Indian settlers since the 1960s, the town's population is still about 80% Indian. It takes its name from the Kichwa phrase "alchi runa," meaning "people who heal."

Archidona is well served by buses. A bus trip from the national capital of Quito to Archidona takes about five hours. There are a few hostel options for travelers, numerous local restaurants and small grocery stores.

Archidona is almost unknown to tourists, though it has many potential tourist attractions and there is much tourist traffic in the nearby towns of Tena and Misahualli.

Communication

Postal service is unavailable in Archidona. Postal deliveries can be received in nearby Tena, but postal service should be assumed to be unreliable throughout Ecuador and private parcel services are preferable. While phone service is available in Archidona, it is a luxury. Internet provider services have recently become available in Archidona, and we hope to establish an internet cafe in the town, as an auxiliary to the Universidad Mamallacta.

Transportation

There is direct bus service from Quito to Archidona, a trip of about five hours, and frequent buses from Archidona to the provincial capital of Tena, a trip of about twenty minutes. From Archidona, one may walk to the village center of Mariposa, or hire a taxi.