Narobe (I am), Peru
Project Founder & Facilitator: Angela Cumberbirch
Lead Organisation: Asociacion Cutivireni (www.acpc.org.pe)
Project website: www.narobe.com
The Asháninka Photography Project puts the camera in the hands of the Asháninka, strengthening their voice and enabling them a means of forging, for the first time ever, their own identity in the global consciousness. The Asháninka live in the high mountain forests of eastern Peru. A vibrant society that looks to the future, they have been actively trying to find a way to record their culture for future generations and to develop a voice within Peru and Internationally.
Through the Asháninka photographs and recorded “stories” the global audience is invited to share in an intimate, compelling and fascinating insight into their lives via exhibitions, DVD’s, the web and a book. The documentation will be further used by the Asháninka to enhance participation and engagement in community and political life on a broader level, and as an educational and advocacy tool with an eye to building a positive and self-determined future for their society.
The Asháninka are the second largest indigenous group in Peru, they live in the rainforests near the headwaters and rivers that feed the Amazon. Their ancestral lands are in the forests of Junin, Pasco, Huanuco and part of Ucayali.
Precise data does not exist, but internal armed conflict during the 1980’s and 1990’s resulted in massive displacement, disappearance and death in the Asháninka communities located in the Ene, Tambo and Perene valleys in the Vilcabamba Mountain range. “Of the estimated 55,000 Asháninka in Peru,…10,000 Asháninka were displaced, 6,000 Asháninka died, 5,000 Asháninka were taken captive by the Shining Path, and between thirty and forty Asháninka communities disappeared”. (Truth & Reconciliation Commission, Peru 28th August 2003)
In the last year few years, the situation has gradually improved and the Asháninka have returned to their ancestral lands where they have slowly been resettling. Four years ago, after lengthy legal proceedings, the Asháninka of the Cordillera Vilcabamba were given full legal title to a portion of their lands which they had spent years mapping with the aid of GPS and satellite technology: Otishi National Park.
At present the Ashaninka are involved in planning and initiating projects with the aim of giving them a greater voice locally and within Peru, organizing their societies, maintaining their traditions and culture, addressing a myriad of problems that resulted from their displacement and the violence they suffered, and promoting the changes needed to go forward.
Project Founder & Facilitator:
Angela Cumberbirch, a New York based photographer, has been visiting the Asháninka of the Cordillera Vilcabamba, Peru for seven years. Her photographs have served to raise money for much needed projects of assistance, and to raise awareness of the people and the land in which they live. She initiated a successful cultural exchange, sponsored by the Asociación Cutivireni (a Peruvian NGO) to introduce a group of Asháninka from the Rio Ene Valley to a small community of Asháninka in Brazil. The Brazilian Asháninka have initiated some very successful programs to express them-selves and so raise their voice in Brazil and Internationally. Angela Cumberbirch has taught photography workshops and has given presentations of her experiences with the Asháninka in grade schools and to adult audiences - to educate, and to raise interest in and awareness of the Asháninka and indigenous people in general.
Lead Organization:
The Asociación Cutivireni has worked closely with the Asháninka in the Cordillera Vilcabamba, Peru for 18 years, successfully initiating, implementing, and developing projects within the communities to address cultural and conservation issues. In 2003 ACPC won the CAMBIE award for Environmental Conservation for their fundamentally important and successful work towards gaining legal title and protection for what is now The Otishi National Park, and The Asháninka and Machiguenga community reserves - and for their support of the Asháninka during the “internal armed conflict” in Peru during the 80’s and 90’s.