Welcome to our Learning Centre
We invite you to learn more about the Baihuaeri Waorani People of Bameno and Yasuni. Travel is a great way to learn. This Learning Centre can also help you get started. It begins with communications from Bameno, followed by some materials from external sources that we recommend.
A word of caution: If you search the internet or libraries looking for information, please keep in mind that there is a lot of confusion and mistaken information about the Waorani Peoples and Yasuni. Anthropology is not an exact science; anthropologists frequently base their interpretations on limited information, debate with each other, modify their interpretations over time, and are influenced by their own culture and way of thinking. Academics in other fields, reporters, documentary filmmakers, NGOs and governments also make mistakes, and frequently ignore grassroots voices. The resulting misinformation is all too often echoed or repeated by others.
To learn more about Bameno and the Baihuaeri, see our About Bameno Page
We Are Ome Yasuni
Friends of Ome Yasuni Fundraiser: This Go Fund Me was created to support the work by Penti and the Baihuaeri Waorani of Bameno to unite with their neighbours to defend the Amazon Rainforest, their territory and way of life, and our climate future. They need funds for mobilisation and communication. We believe that Indigenous Peoples have the right to protect their rainforest homes from oil extraction, and that respecting their land rights is the best way to ensure true and sustainable conservation. We are inspired by Penti and the Baihuaeri Waorani defenders’ initiative and determination. Please share this link and make a donation if you can. No donation is too small when we all pitch in.
Deje Vivir – Let us Live!
In response to growing international interest in Yasuni, the Baihuaeri Waorani of Bameno, Original People of Yasuni, have written this proposal to share their vision and defend the forest and the rights of the Waorani Peoples who call her home and Ome.
Kemperi’s Testimony
Find here the testimony of legendary Baihuaeri shaman Kemperi, to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Indigenous Tagaeri & Taromenane Peoples Vs. Ecuador, the first international human rights case involving the rights of Indigenous Peoples living in voluntary isolation (in Spanish).
Message from Yasuní to the “International Summit for Yasuní: A Historic Opportunity to Stop the Climate Crisis One Year after the Popular Consultation to Stop the Climate Crisis one year after the Popular Consultation”
Read the original Spanish here
Message from Yasuni from the Baihuaeri Waorani of Bameno after the Referendum to leave the oil in the ground in Block 43
Read the original Spanish here
Read the English translation here
Voces de la selva (Voices from the Forest) by Penti Baihua & Judith Kimerling
New Species of Anaconda in Bameno
You might have heard about the giant new anaconda species
identified in the Amazon while filming a National Geographic
series with Will Smith. That was in Bameno! These magnificent
creatures can reach up to 8 meters long; the female they
found in Bameno was the largest anaconda ever measured
by science, at 7.5 meters and weighing about 500 kilograms.
There are many inaccuracies about the work in Bameno and
Waorani culture in the press reports and statements – but you
can read the scientific paper here. The importance of
Bameno’s contribution is recognized by including Bameno
Community Tours’ Penti Baihua and Marcelo Tepeña Baihua as
co-authors.
Timeless Messages from Bameno
Ome Yasuni YouTube | Ome Yasuni Instagram | Bameno Community Tours Facebook
Amazon Crude
Judith Kimerling’s Amazon Crude exposed the devastating impact of oil extraction in the Amazon Rainforest. It first placed concerns about the impact of oil operations on Indigenous Peoples and the environment on policy agendas around the world, and prompted a historic lawsuit in the United States (Aguinda v. Texaco) and related litigation in Ecuador (Aguinda v. Chevron) and elsewhere. The New York Times called Amazon Crude “the Silent Spring of Ecuador.” The book is out of print but still in demand.
The author wants the book to directly benefit grassroots communities like Bameno who are defending their rainforest territory from the expanding oil frontier. She has shared a pdf version with Bameno Community Tours, to give to anyone who donates at least $30 to the GoFundMe “Help the Baihuaeri Save Their Rainforest Home.” Include your name with your donation and send an email to BamenoCommunityTours.com to let us know whether you want the English or Spanish-language edition, and we will send it by email.
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