ZEKE Magazine: Spring 2023.2

ZEKE AWARD FOR SYSTEMIC CHANGE
FIRST-PLACE WINNER
Piatsaw
Photos by Nicola Ókin Frioli
Ecuador
Piatsaw was the first man, and God, of
the Sapara mythology who prophesied
the end of the culture of his people.
This documentary tells the story of the
resistance that the Indigenous people
of the Ecuadorian Amazon have
waged against extractive companies
that threaten their territories through
continuous concessions and contamination
caused by Texaco during its
presence in the country. In 1964, Texaco
(now Chevron), arrived in Ecuador with a
concession of 1.5 million hectares in the
provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana. At
that time, they were extracting oil from
450,000 hectares. The oil giant admitted
in court to having dumped 19 billion
gallons of crude
oil and harmful
A Document on the Resistance of the Native
chemicals directly
into unlined
rivers and pools
in a particularly biodiverse region of the
Ecuadorian rainforest over decades. The
health and future of the inhabitants were
affected by contaminants present in the
soil and groundwater, quantities exceeding
permissible levels in Ecuador.
Following the events that indelibly
marked the future of many families,
the Native peoples of the Ecuadorian
Amazon applied different defense methodologies
against mining, oil companies,
and the government. Armed confrontations,
national strikes and their presence
in the courts were the strategies that the
Indigenous nationalities used to stop the
loss and destruction of their territories as
they consider their environment part of
their body and plants and animals are the
other members of their society.
2 / ZEKE SPRING 2023