WILFRIDO LUSITANDE PIAGUAJE
Wilfrido Lusitande Piaguaje( b. 1984, San Pablo de Katëtsiaya, Ecuador), the descendent of a renowned family of artists, considers painting and other art practices to be forms of life, resistance, and survival for his people. Visual expression has allowed their spirituality to endure, deeply connected to their ancestral land.“ This is the Wa’ iya River,” he says of Desde las raíces Siekopaai( From the Siekopaai roots)( 2025).“ I had a vision of a canoe that had been long abandoned. A wise man sits beside it while he prepares the canoe for its return to Pë’ ëkë’ ya. Metaphorically, he is preparing us, the Siekopaai nation, endowing us with ancestral knowledge for our return.” Next to the wise man is the yagé( ayahuasca) vine and the boa, longstanding symbols of spirituality and power.
Pë’ ëkë’ ya( Lagartococha or Alligator River) is the sacred ancestral territory of the Paai, or Siekopaai people, located along the northern border of Ecuador and Peru. Over eighty years ago, the Siekopaai were displaced and dispossessed by rubber barons, the Ecuador – Peru war over Amazonian land, and evangelical missionaries. For generations, their only return to Pë’ ëkë’ ya was through dreams and yagé visions. In 2023, the Ecuadorian justice system recognized the Siekopaai’ s rightful ownership of Pë’ ëkë’ ya, marking a historic legal victory.
Despite the current physical and social devastation caused by oil drilling and spills that have claimed the lives of many Paai elders and wisdom keepers, Lusitande Piaguaje sees the vision that inspired his painting as“ a symbol of their return and ongoing effort to reclaim both land and culture.”( DIANA ITURRALDE)
84