AMAZANGA is the name I was
given to tell a story. It is an old story. The story says that we humans are born
magical beings...that we are born into a magical universe. The story describes the
Earth as our beloved, and speaks of her ancient trees as being like our closest cousins.
The story tells us that we are here to evolve, and says that when we breathe and dance
and love amid age-old primary forests, that it is then that the Earth most naturally
and gently nurtures our evolution. I discovered this story while dreaming on the
forest floor.
Surrounded by the pristine headwaters of Ecuador's Rio Putomayo, I traveled with a small
group that included Quechwa and Secoya Indians, and a man they call a 'vegetalista', an
indigenous elder versed in the arts of shamanic healing. The vegetalista gave to my
compatriots names by which the Indians could better remember us. To me he gave the name
AMAZANGA, warning that it carried the weight of a great responsibility, and that if I
wished then a different name could be found. AMAZANGA, he explained, means the whole of
the rainforest—its plants, its creatures, its peoples...its spirit. I accepted
the name.
After returning home from the forest, I began to draw pictures; not as an artist trained
by years of study, but rather out of a strange compulsion, like something a storyteller
might feel when pulled along by visions beckoning for expression. The pictures developed
slowly and after several years I began realizing that they formed a narrative, a story,
and that sharing this story was the responsibility given to me by the name
AMAZANGA.
There are 26 pictures, each representing what I feel is a point of passage, a mythic place
in our lives that we must all pass through. I hope the pictures express this intimate
mystery, as well as the wonder embedded in the natural world. I hope also that these
pictures reflect honestly the spirit of the vegetalista I met in the forest, a spirit
echoing the guiding voices of an archaic heritage...a heritage to which I believe we
are all magically born.
group that included Quechwa and Secoya Indians, and a man they call a 'vegetalista', an
indigenous elder versed in the arts of shamanic healing. The vegetalista gave to my
compatriots names by which the Indians could better remember us. To me he gave the name
AMAZANGA, warning that it carried the weight of a great responsibility, and that if I
wished then a different name could be found. AMAZANGA, he explained, means the whole of
the rainforest—its plants, its creatures, its peoples...its spirit. I accepted
the name.