I just wanted to give a shout-out to the Kantza kickstarter, a campaign that’s nearing its goal but just needs a little more help to reach it before the deadline next week. Amazon Voice is behind the project, a group striving to create a multimedia network in the Amazon rainforest for indigenous communities.
[quote=]Kantza is a film project envisioned and produced by members of the Shuar nation, indigenous caretakers of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Through collaboration with professional video and audio technicians the tribe intends to share the beauty of their culture as well as the struggle to preserve their homelands. Furthermore, the skills gained by making their own movie will offer on-going opportunities to document culture, share wisdom and engage the global community in ways that support social and environmental justice.[/quote]
It’s a terrific initiative, one that empowers the Shuar people to make their own film, from their own perspective. It’s especially inspiring to see how quickly the Shuar took to the multimedia technology, professional filmmakers all along:
[quote=]The team at Amazon Voice found it astonishing that upon exposing the community to laptops for the first time, the Shuar people were easily able to navigate the computers and use music editing software to create professional tracks in just a few short hours of lesson. In response to our amazement, they replied, “We have been doing this in our dreams our whole lives.”[/quote]
Like their neighbours the Achuar and other Amazon tribes, communal dreaming is integral to the daily life of the Shuar. The Kantza project itself began with a dream; the Tawasap village chief dreamt of a media centre that neighbouring communities could use to communicate with the outside world, a collaborative creative hub for the Amazon. It’s William Gibson’s Neuromancer, rainforest shaman edition.
In recent years the Daily Grail has developed a keen interest in shamanism and indigenous traditions of the Amazon, from Wade Davis to ayahuasca, and the Kantza project is one we heartily recommend you dig deep for to support. Ancient wisdom in exchange for technological shinies is a fair trade!
Further reading:
~ Spirit of the Shuar by John Perkins & Shakaim Mariano Shakai Ijisam Chumpi (Amazon US, Kindle, UK)
~ The World Is As You Dream It: Teachings from the Amazon and Andes by John Perkins (Amazon US, Kindle, UK)
~ Dream Practices of the Achuar by Marilyn Schlitz, Ph.D., and Frank Pascoe, Ph.D.
