WAORANI
The Saga of Ecuador's Secret People:
A Historical Perspective
© Adrian Warren, Last Refuge Ltd., March 2002, in association with Dr. James Yost.

"Palm Beach", rio Curaray, Ecuador, 2002 site of 1956 Missionary killings

After the spearing of the five Americans, which made world headlines, Dayuma heard about yet more killings among her people. She wanted to do something to stop these senseless acts, but she was afraid that, after living with outsiders for nearly ten years, her people might even kill her if she returned. But, two years after the terrible spearing at Palm Beach, some of her relatives came out of the forest looking for her and persuaded her to go back. So Dayuma returned to her people on the Tewaeno river, where she heard of her brother's death and found her people decimated by violent revenge killings, weary of the spearings and living in fear. Relieved and surprised to find Dayuma still alive after living with outsiders, her Waorani relatives listened to her stories about her cowode friends and saw an opportunity for change, an escape from a life of endless fear.

Through Dayuma, the Waorani invited Rachel Saint and Elisabeth Elliott, one a sister and one a widow of the speared missionaries, to come to live with them. The invitation was accepted, and when the two American women travelled to the forest, the first ever peaceful contact with the Waorani was made. Rachel Saint and Elisabeth Elliott settled into a life with the killers of their loved ones and began to convert them to Christianity.

It has often been stated that the spearing of the five missionaries was the turning point in Waorani history. But the truly pivotal point was when Rachel and Elisabeth showed the Waorani that they were ready to forgive them for the killings. Forgiveness was a new concept to them, and it brought, for the first time ever, a possibility of peace, something the Waorani had longed for and sought for many generations, but had failed to attain. The appeal of the Christian message for the Waorani had more to do with the promise of an end to living in constant fear of spearing raids than any promise of an afterlife or relationship with God.

Rachel had been asked by the oil companies to persuade the Waorani to move from their scattered settlements to one place, to allow exploration to continue unimpeded. . The moves would be for their own safety, since ultimately the exploration would be unstoppable. Little by little, more and more Waorani families arrived to settle at the newly founded sanctuary at Tewaeno, seeking a new life without the constant fear of being killed. They persuaded the Waorani to build an airstrip so they could get in and out of Tewaeno without the arduous trip by trail. During the 1960s, as they moved out of the old hunting grounds and made way for oil exploration, raids and killings among the Waorani reduced. The area surrounding the village of Tewaeno became officially established as a protectorate for the Waorani by 1968. It was not a prison, however, and those who did settle there were free to come and go. Some of them did just that.

Tewaeno, 1973: Housing styles have varied in Waorani culture since pre-contact times

Gabado, 1974: Visitors from Dicado show up at the Gabado aemae

In addition to acting as the catalyst for the cessation of killing, the missionaries served as a model for interaction with cowode. Because the missionaries attempted to identify with Waorani needs, the Waorani responded positively to the missionaries early on, but learned later that not all cowode intended to treat them so well. Some cowode wanted their land or its resources, others wanted cheap labour, and yet others wanted sexual access to their women. It took time for the Waorani to realise that not all cowode would treat them as well as they had come to expect from the missionaries.