“They couldn’t see the forests, the streams, the birds and fish, let alone us the natives here. All they could see was money,” says Albertina Nanchijam Tuwits, a representative of the awajun (jivaro) people in the Peruvian Amazonia.
This fascinating account of Jivaro life plunges us into two worlds, through the voice of a woman yearning for freedom. Ravaged by colonial history, discrimination, violence, land expropriation, the exploitation of local resources and invaders’ greed, the Awajun people have suffered the worst instincts of globalization. Amid this torment, Albertina resists. Even within her community where violence toward women is rife. Her approach is not that of the downtrodden martyr; she battles on every front with passion and determination. Her force comes from nature, from the heart of a living cosmology, engraved in memory and embodied in actions. For everything is life.
From a young age, Albertina chose to be Uyaïnim, a small palm tree with branches laden with fruit, because it never breaks: “I shall never snap. Even if they hurt me, I shall never let myself die.” From childhood to her adult years, from the personal to the social, from poetry to politics, from local to global, her path will constantly defend the living. A universal struggle in which everyone can find the fragments of life around them.