Welcome to Delta Amacuro, “Land of water and birthplace of the Warao”
By: Omar Molina Fereira
In 2018, I visited Delta Amacuro state for the first time on a work trip. We had arranged a visit to this location on which we had scheduled a series of activities, out of which a donation of materials and equipment was to be given to one of the Warao communities based in Caño Manamo.
I still remember fondly gazing upon the “El Cierre” checkpoint by the entry of the state a sign that read: “Welcome to Delta Amacuro, land of water and birthplace of the Warao”, just before crossing the mythical Orinoco River, one of the most emblematic features of our country that had mesmerized my imagination when I was in the 4th grade when I took a book from the school library called “The Mighty Orinoco”, written by Jules Verne by the end of the XIX century. Perhaps one of my most significant memories from that exploration in the Delta was having tasted the sweetest coconut water that I had ever drunk in my life when one of the Warao climbed over a tree to pick that yellow and perfectly spheric fruit, that everyone that visits those lands must have the chance to try.
According to Álvaro A. García-Castro, Ph.D. in Anthropology and photographer, “few people have a history so intertwined to a fluvial habitat like the Warao people”. A population that lives in the caños or arms that comprise the Orinoco Delta. It is believed that these lands were inhabited 9,000 years ago. “Warao” is translated into its language as “water people”. It originates from the waha (low river) and arao (people, inhabitants). According to a study by Johannes Wilber in 1964, on the oral history of the Warao people, this group might have protected themselves from the expansion of other ethnicities like the Caribes and Arawakos, even the Spanish colonizers, thanks to their intricate swamps that enabled them to keep their traditions and costumes almost intact over the course of history.
The Warao consider the Earth, called in their language “Hobahi”, as a disc that floats in the middle of a water body. Under and along the rim of the disc is soft, but the surface is wavy with dented edges like the silhouette of the green islands of the Orinoco Delta. From the circular edge of the Earth, called hobahi akari “where the earth splits”, you can see through the great circle of the ocean that extends from the horizon (AitanaI), the end of the world. Submerged in the sea and surrounded by Earth there is a snake, whose body surrounds its perimeter and its head reaches its tail on the east of the disc, “where the sun is born”, known as Hahuba. Its body contains the amorphous luminous essence of all the representations of life on the planet, that is where the voice of every being is registered from the moment that is born. The breathing of Hahuba is the one that regulates the rhythm of the tides that renew and sustain life constantly in the Delta.
The ancestral definition of the home invites us to see the harmonious integration between these people and its almost symbiotic relationship with the fluvial ecosystem, out of which we can make a brief summary of the Warao way of life.
Housing: traditionally the Warao live in pile dwellings or janokos (ja=hammock and noko=place), built on the river banks, anchored over six mangrove sticks or “buhu”, made on an uniform platform of manaca wood sticks, rectangular or squared shape with the roof made of temiche palm, gable drop roof with no walls.
Agriculture: they harvest yucca which is used for preparing different foods, including cassava and a drink that is fermented by saliva, the paiwari. The introduction of the taro, as one of the main crops, rapidly displaced the traditional yuruma as the base food due to its easy crop. Likewise, they started growing other types of products such as plantains, sugar cane, sweet and sour yucca, rice, corn, etc; which also displaced the gathering of wild fruits that were part of the traditional diet.
Hunt and fishing: the fishing activity is known as “yaba”. The method of fishing varies according to the chosen area. They use bows, arrows, harpoons, traps, and lance pods in shallow waters. Hunting is not a prime activity amongst the Warao, but they tend to include the tapir and the agouti. Generally, before hunting, the Warao already know where to go, as the day before someone heard a collared peccary eating or walking. They know how to distinguish the type of animal by the noise they make when eating. The Warao are connoisseurs of their water environment, having developed a number of methods and techniques for the harnessing of these resources so essential in their diet. The best time for fishing is when the river's water is still when there are no changes in the tides.
Crafts: as artisans, they used materials of vegetable origin, like the moriche palm, bora, or Sangrito wood. They make moriche hammocks, baskets, sebucanes, manares, guapas, collars, animal figurines, and other wood-carved objects. During my tour around the community, one person explained to me that the pots are a sacred item for the Warao families. When the mother of the family dies, she is buried with them, as they were a fundamental part of providing nourishment for their children.
Hierarchy: the Warao communities are led by a chieftain or cacique. Within the home, the authority and organization of the community are matriarchal and the men are in charge of the communal labor distribution as well as cultural events and traditions. The Warao define the concept of “mother” as the ones who organize the earthly life in different “families” (awarao), that inhabit a determined territory. This means that every specie has its respective “mother” (arani); for the Warao, all mothers are sisters between each other and all of them are daughters of the “Serpent of Being”. Mothers have clear and simple rules for the families, which revolve towards avoiding violence, and understanding violence as all that leads to the elimination of a being. However, hunting is needful for many people to survive, and because of that the rules allow hunting as long as no member of the same family is affected.
Clothing: anciently, the Warao used to wear loincloths as part of their attire. In time, traditional clothes have changed by using pants and robes. In some indigenous communities, the loincloth is still in use, especially when hunting. However, nowadays clothing has adopted a style fitter to the common denominator of towns like Tucupita due to the commercial trade activities.
Arts: at the Delta, we can find the Warao and the creole fusion. The Warao use the “moriche” or “tree of life” and create objects through their versatile hands like baskets, purses, and decorations made with the spiral knitting technique, using a needle made of deer horn with colored moriche fibers, achieving a beautiful finishing with commercial appeal.
Delta Amacuro is a destination fairly unknown within our country. However, this region has a particular attraction for the tourism of nature and the ethno-tourism, where we can not only experience the unique beauty of the Delta region but interact with a culture that inhabits this for thousands of years land and still maintains its traditions.