CLIP 1: “I think my work is the way she understood Amazonia, our history”

We meet Rember Yahuarcani, a painter living in Lima, Peru, who is one of the few surviving members of the Clan of the White Heron of the indigenous Huitoto (Witoto) people. Rember works in his studio far from his family home in the Amazonian Forest. Here he creates paintings that translate the ancestral stories and cultural history of his tribe, as passed on to him by his grandmother, but he is struggling to find inspiration. He wonders if he is a good translator of his Grandmother’s legacy.

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CLIP 2:“What to paint next? That’s what I’m thinking about…”

Rember returns to his family home to visit his father, Santiago Yahuarcani, a painter and indigenous leader of the Huitoto people, and his mother, Nereida Lopez, a sculptor and traditional mask maker. Rember’s father also translates the history of the Huitoto in his work but with a focus on the tragedy and trauma of the brutal rubber boom. In the early 20th century, the majority of the Amazonian tribes in the Putomayo region were enslaved, brutalized, and murdered. Rember talks to his father about his creative struggle and his father reminds him that life is always a struggle. Rember’s mother shares the tradition and function of mask making, explaining to the children that the masks take the forms of animals of the forest who represent the spirits of their ancestors.

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CLIP 3:“The interesting part is not a beautiful illustration … The interesting part is its story”

Rember’s mother, Nereida, makes traditional casava while his grandmother’s voice recounts the tragedy of the Huitoto people during the Rubber Boom of the early 20th century. Later, Nereida tells Rember that her family never spoke about their heritage or history and that it wasn’t until she married his father, Santiago, that she began to understand the importance of their cultural legacy. Rember tells her that his father just taught him the word for butterfly (mariposa) in Huitoto, tuturuo , and she reminds him to “Make the most of your Dad,” while they are together and learn everything he can. Santiago shares the stories his father told him about the atrocities of the rubber boom with his young sons. He describes how the spirits of the dead Huitoto emerged from their ancestors’ bodies as thousands of butterflies. He asks them to illustrate the oral history he just shared with them in their own paintings and drawings and asks them to “imagine how to draw a war.” He reminds them that “The interesting part is not a beautiful illustration … The interesting part is its story.”

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CLIP 4:“He will find out the stories, the wise words from the ancestors.”

Rember travels to his family’s ancestral home in the La Chorrera a region of the Amazonian Putumayo. He is welcomed in song by his tribal relatives who give him a new name in the Huitoto language. Rember explains why he has come and the importance of reconnecting with the Huitoto community. He wants to continue to keep the stories, culture, and history his grandmother shared with him alive, especially for his community and to share their cultural history with the world through his artwork. A tribal elder retells a pivotal story from the atrocities of the colonial rubber boom when the foremen set fire to the workers’ longhouses and murdered most of the Huitoto community and wiped out the Bofaiza tribe.

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CLIP 5:“We want you to tell the world who we are and make our stories known.”

Rember visits with a group of elder women who sing the traditional song of the Huitoto women who are “sweet like the casava.” He tells them they remind him of his grandmother and explains that there are no longer any grandmothers where his family escaped to in Peru. The women share stories about how they knew and remember his grandmother, Martha, and how they appreciate that he was raised in the traditions of their tribe. They remind him how important his journey is, thank him for preserving their stories, and encourage him to share their culture with the world.

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