At the traditional Sarayaku school, the children attend classes on plants. The classes take place not far from the botanical garden, Sacha Runa, which covers about 10 hectares. It contains most of the plants used for traditional medicine, food, cosmetics, construction… To reach the Sasi Wasi knowledge centre, a privileged place for indigenous medicine, of one hectare, you have to cross this large garden.

The name of the traditional school “TAYAK WAS” is originally the song of the flower, sung by the shaman to strengthen people and give them more life. Then it became the name of the project “The Great Living Path of Flowers” (Sisa Nambi), the path of the flowers and the border of life where “huge flowering trees go up to the sky along the borders of Sarayaku”. This frontier carries a message: “to say that, within this territory, there is a people fighting for its survival and for the life of the forest”. The person in charge of these places is Antonio Ram.

Antonio Ram, who works in collaboration with Patricia Gualinga, ambassador for the rights of nature, is also the teacher of the children in the traditional school. For him, it is fundamental to pass on his knowledge to them so that they too can become guardians of nature and live in harmony with the living forest. “The living forest is the daily life of the indigenous peoples. So this relationship to nature, this relationship to life, is there. If it wasn’t there, Sarayaku would no longer exist. To be able to live like this, every day, here, we have to struggle”, explains the teacher.

These classes on plants are appreciated by the pupils, who love their village, their culture and their life. “I like this school already because my uncles, my other brothers and sisters came here and I am learning what they also learned. And it complements what my parents teach me at home. My favourite subject is the knowledge of the people of the forest,” says a 14-year-old pupil.