Today there are some 3,000 Waorani living in their designated territory and the population is growing fast. One consequence of this growth is the creation of a new population imbalance, with the terrible effects of deforestation that follow.

This exhibition has already been on display in Spain at the Museo de la Ciencia de Valladolid (Museum of Sciences of Valladolid) from July to September of 2005, and was a great success.

The Waorani culture was the last one of those located in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest (Ecuador, South America) to be in contact with western cultures . Even today, in the 21st century, some groups related to the Waorani still survive isolated in the forest, without contact to the outside world. They continue to live a nomadic life style and move around in areas located in both parts of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian forest. They are the Tagaeri and Taromenane.

When the first contact was made the territory occupied by the Waorani people had approximately 2 millions hectares. This territory was part of the Yasuni National Park. In 1990 about 700,000 ha of the park were officially given to the Waorani people by the Ecuadorian government as a recognition of their ancestral territory. This area was thus automatically taken out from the Yasuny National Park. However, what appeared to be a triumph for the Waorani was actually a government strategy, as according to the law in Ecuador, it is illegal to give permission to the oil companies to work inside a National Park, yet it is legal for them to work inside indigenous territories. Since its creation, the Yasuni National Park has suffered several enlargements and reductions. Nowadays it has 982,000 ha. with several oil companies working in the territory no longer considered to be National Park. This includes the territory given to the Waorani people. Meanwhile, the Yasuny National Park is under threat that these oil companies will gain permission to operate inside the park.

This website belongs to an exhibition about the Waorani indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest. This exhibition, called "Waorani, a vanishing culture", is currently for rent and it is as well open for sponsoring. The author intends to present the exhibition in several European and American countries. Here you can download the exhibition dossier.

The author, Miguel de la Iglesia, has elaborated on his collection regarding photographic material and original pieces thanks to several trips he made to the Waorani territory since the year 2000 to 2006, and his exhibition continues to grow. Thanks to these trips, the author has witnessed the evolution of the Waorani people as they continue to face rapid changes forced by their inclusion into western culture. All this is shown in the exhibition.

In the 1950´s evangelist missionaries of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (S. I. L.) came in contact with the Waorani, with the help of oil companies. Their purpose was to evangelize the Waorani people and to relegate them into a reservation they called “The Protectorate”. By relocating the Waorani, the evangelists cleared the way for the oil extraction works, which had been in the face of danger up to that point due to the attacks of the “savages” on the oil workers in the extraction areas. Once in contact with the missionaries, several epidemics (small pox, influenza, hepatitis, etc.) reduced the population of the Waorani people to dangerous levels.

The Waorani