Remember Tomorrow

Daniela Beltran B.

2018 - Ongoing

I visited the Waorani for the first time in 2018 while working with an NGO that directly helps this nationality, the most recently contacted of all Ecuadorian indigenous people. It was there that I met Naime Irunmenga, a woman, mother of three, and a warrior who works tirelessly to provide a better future for her children. Through her, I understood the complexity of the context in which her community lives.

We are witnessing the fragility of human beings in constant and inevitable transformation, and the innocence of those who are dragged by forces that most of us do not understand. An uncertain future for the youngest who no longer carry the ancestral knowledge of their grandparents, while being part of a society that seems to be breaking apart, and to which they are expected to adjust to.

This project is a long-term visual exploration of human nature, and the unpredictable future of the Waorani indigenous people who are part of a massive transformation, experiencing it from within the lungs of the Earth.

I intend this work to raise a sense of concern, awareness, but mostly hope in the future generations that will carry the weight of inevitable change in our human experience.

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  • A portrait of Naime Irunmenga in the jungle.

  • A portrait of Juan Carlos, Naime's son, walking through the river next to their house.

  • Power lines, a light bulb, and the moving forest.

  • Ismael, Naime's son taking a quick late-shower in the river next to their house.

  • Shampoo soap floating on the river where Naime and her family bath, brush their teeth, do laundry, and clean dishes.

  • A portrait of a Waorani woman with her school uniform.

  • End of school-year ceremony.

  • A kid's hand grabbing a fence.

  • Children looking inside a tent.

  • Water footprints on wooden floor.

  • A portrait of Ismael, Naime's son on a natural water slide.

  • Rays of sunlight shining through a traditional Waorani house.

  • Children wave goodbye to a moving truck.

  • A portrait of Guica, Naime's mother in law who is currently fighting cancer.

  • Oil extraction plant in the Ecuadorian Amazon, in Waorani territory.


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