In societies with an oral tradition, the transmission of knowledge and culture is a weapon of resistance and emancipation. This is the case in Ecuador, in the Kichwas community of Sarayaku, where it is women who hold and transmit ancestral knowledge to girls, particularly with regard to handicrafts. In this case, women heritage has a fundamental place in the preservation of customs and traditions.
Thus, at the Sarayaku traditional school, the elders are invited to teach their culture to the children. “They tell stories and songs to the girls,” explains Teresa, a teacher at the school. She has invited Cristina Gualinga, a former teacher of Kichwa and traditional knowledge, to teach the young people handicrafts. “She is one of the people who knows the traditions and customs of Sarayaku very well”.
Cristina Gualinga then shares her knowledge by singing legends and tales related to ceramics. “It’s a tale to initiate them that tells how to make pottery, how to cook it and talks about the land that is called “mangalpa””, says Teresa. Cristina also interprets a song by her father, called “turi apamongi”. “This song talks about the festivities. It also talks about friendship, about chicha, the cassava beer that is always made by a woman in a ceramic pot”.
This form of learning is typical among the natives where roles are divided. For example, the boys make the tools needed for hunting and the girls learn traditional handicrafts.
“It is practical education that has always existed in our world, we have never had books or drawings,” says Cristina Gualinga.
A practical exercise of this heritage is the festival of the spear, which is the symbol of the Sarayakus’ resistance and independence and where they reaffirm their culture and identity loud and clear. On this occasion, the women’s know-how is honoured through the ceramics, baskets, canastas and decorations they have made.
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Credit: Christine Diger
