Celebration of Indigenous Film

120 Deer Trail Drive,Sedona AZ 86336

03 June, 2022

Description

Join us in a celebration of indigenous filmmaking! We will gather to view two short films with award winning indigenous director, Jimmy Piaguaje, from the Siekopai tribe of the Rainforest, following an open discussion. To accompany the dialogue Kumiko Hayashi will share a guayusa tea & cacao ceremony to open our hearts as we expand our consciousness to protect the sanctity of all life on earth. This fundraising event aims to raise donations for the Siekopai people and their cultural festival this August 2022. Jimmy Piaguaje is a young Siekopai indigenous activist from Siekoya Remolino, a community of 53 families living on the banks of the Aguarico River in Ecuador's northeastern Amazon region. The Siekopai (meaning multicolored people) are known for their shamanic insight and knowledge of medicinal plants, with uses for over 1,000 different plants. The Siekopai are an endangered people defending a fragile ecosystem on which we all depend: the Amazon rainforest. Previously, the Siekopai numbered more than 30,000 people and had an immense territory that stretched up to some 2.8 million hectares from Ecuador to Colombia and Peru. Currently, there are only about 1,600 Siekopai left, 900 of them in Peru and 700 in Ecuador, where they live in a 20,000-hectare fragment of jungle, surrounded by oil fields and palm oil monocultures. In response to the existential threats they face, Jimmy and a group of other young Siekopai leaders have developed some innovative projects, safeguarding ancient shamanic knowledge in video format and organizing environmental workshops with children. Their next goal is to expand into an alternative school with an educational model based on their own worldview (Information about the Siekopai from an Article written by Beth Pitts for Extinction Rebellion)