COLECTIVO TAWNA
Colectivo TAWNA( est. 2017, Ecuador) is a film collective dedicated to telling stories from and about the Amazon. In Kichwa, a language spoken widely across the Ecuadorian Amazon, tawna is an oar used to steer canoes through the water. As a metaphor, it evokes direction, resistance, and transformation. True to this spirit, the collective brings together filmmakers, visual artists, and storytellers to translate the depth of their oneiric worlds, sociocultural contexts, and relational ontologies into compelling audiovisual narratives. Through their work they imagine and protect a shared future where Amazonian ways of life and coexistence continue to expand and renew themselves.
These photographs are part of Ñuka Shuti Man( My name is)( 2023), an installation piece comprising photographs, collage, video, and sound, in which TAWNA’ s cofounder Sani Montahuano and her sisters pay tribute to their mother, Carmelina Ushigua. As a young Sapara woman, Carmelina was forced into marriage and had to leave her beloved home in Old Llanchama for the city of Puyo. As Montahuano recalls,“ Growing up we had no photographs— only our memory and the stories our mother passed on to us. She created her own forest outside the forest: her own space in the city filled with the animals, plants, and spirits she carried with her.” Photography allowed Montahuano and her sisters to retrace the footsteps of their mother and remember both her and her teachings. Montahuano continues,“ It helped me understand who I am as a Sapara woman living between the city and the forest. We never forget who we are— or the messages we carry.”( DIANA ITURRALDE)
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