Come Along on a Canoe Ride Through the Amazon With Young Sarayaku Footballers

These kids belong to Club Deportivo Sarayaku's football academy, which not only helps young kichwas from the community learn to dribble, pass, and play defense, but also helps steer them in the right direction, toward team sport, away from potentially dangerous temptations. The school's website says it acts as a bulwark against the “aggression of globalization”:

"The youth of Sarayaku possess intelligence, talent, and the ability to live in their territory's habitat. They are skilled in the forest as hunters, knowledgeable about botany, the cosmos, the mountains, the rain, waterfalls, lightning, stones, the sacred Uchuputo tree, and of the Pachamama (Mother Earth). Today they are falling slowly to the visible and invisible aggression of globalization, to the postponement and abandonment of the large governmental ministries, to the industrial projects, and to the lack of solidarity that leads to the serious risk at an early age of alcoholism and youth migration"

This article was produced by Global Voices and is republished in CONNECTAS thanks to a distribution of content agreement. Helping to build self-esteem and pride in the local youth culture is another goal of the football school because of the camaraderie built among the team when representing their community. This can be seen in the fun the close-knit team has when it sets off for the six-hour river journey to play its next match. Eriberto Gualinga, a filmmaker from the Kichwa community, accompanied the team to capture the trip along the Bobonanza River, which also included a 90-minute bus ride. The team faced its latest opponent: a football school located in Palora Canton.  

Filming with a GoPro camera, Gualinga documented the conditions in which the youth travel to play the sport they love:

"In the Amazon, the climate is unpredictable. You can see the four seasons of the year all in the same day: sunshine in the morning, rain in the afternoon, strong winds, trees with flowers, and trees that lose their leaves. The little travelers face all of these adversities"

The river is sacred to the Sarayaku people, as it is not only the means of communication and contact with other communities, but it is a source of sustenance. That is why the Sarayaku people are well-known for defending their natural surroundings because of their relationship with nature. And now the river is also a way to connect with other communities for a friendly match of football.

---

Click HERE to view the original article

 

Click HERE to read the Spanish version

 

---

This article was written by Eduardo Avila and translated into Spanish by Gabriela García Calderón for Global Voices and is republished in CONNECTAS thanks to a distribution of content agreement.

These kids belong to Club Deportivo Sarayaku’s football academy, which not only helps young kichwas from the community learn to dribble, pass, and play defense, but also helps steer them in the right direction, toward team sport, away from potentially dangerous temptations. The school’s website says it acts as a bulwark against the “aggression of globalization”:

“The youth of Sarayaku possess intelligence, talent, and the ability to live in their territory’s habitat. They are skilled in the forest as hunters, knowledgeable about botany, the cosmos, the mountains, the rain, waterfalls, lightning, stones, the sacred Uchuputo tree, and of the Pachamama (Mother Earth). Today they are falling slowly to the visible and invisible aggression of globalization, to the postponement and abandonment of the large governmental ministries, to the industrial projects, and to the lack of solidarity that leads to the serious risk at an early age of alcoholism and youth migration”

This article was produced by Global Voices and is republished in CONNECTAS thanks to a distribution of content agreement.

Helping to build self-esteem and pride in the local youth culture is another goal of the football school because of the camaraderie built among the team when representing their community. This can be seen in the fun the close-knit team has when it sets off for the six-hour river journey to play its next match.

Eriberto Gualinga, a filmmaker from the Kichwa community, accompanied the team to capture the trip along the Bobonanza River, which also included a 90-minute bus ride. The team faced its latest opponent: a football school located in Palora Canton.

 

Filming with a GoPro camera, Gualinga documented the conditions in which the youth travel to play the sport they love:

“In the Amazon, the climate is unpredictable. You can see the four seasons of the year all in the same day: sunshine in the morning, rain in the afternoon, strong winds, trees with flowers, and trees that lose their leaves. The little travelers face all of these adversities”

The river is sacred to the Sarayaku people, as it is not only the means of communication and contact with other communities, but it is a source of sustenance. That is why the Sarayaku people are well-known for defending their natural surroundings because of their relationship with nature. And now the river is also a way to connect with other communities for a friendly match of football.

---

Click HERE to view the original article

 

Click HERE to read the Spanish version

 

---

This article was written by Eduardo Avila and translated into Spanish by Gabriela García Calderón for Global Voices and is republished in CONNECTAS thanks to a distribution of content agreement.