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Hands of the Rainforest: The Emberá People of the Darien (currently being edited), Rachel Crandell

I wanted to meet indigenous people who live deep in the tropical rainforest and still live a traditional lifestyle. I decided to go to the Darien Gap, the one place where the Pan American highway never got built. You can drive from Alaska to the southern tip of South America except in eastern Panama's province called the Darien and the western part of Colombia. I reasoned that if there was no road, there would be less change. So true! I met the Emberá people and they took me up the Sambu River by dugout canoe. I was welcomed into their stilt houses, fed delicious river shrimp and plantains, guided through the rain forest to ancient petroglyphs seldom seen by outsiders. The cacique, chief of all the chiefs, asked me to record the stories of the old storytellers on my video camera and help them by getting it translated. It is only in recent years that their language has been put into written form.

I have returned 7 times and visited all 13 villages recording scores of stories of the Ancient Times passed down through oral tradition. Rogelio, an amazing Emberá who won scholarships to the US for university and to Canada for graduate school, is helping me by transcribing the stories in their first language and then translating them into Spanish and into English. Our goal is to create a trilingual book for them of their stories illustrated in color by Emberá artists. The proceeds from Hands of the Rainforest: Emberá People of the Darien will fund the publishing of their stories.

The Emberá are skilled basketweavers and carvers of cocobolo wood and makers of masks. I have bought many of their art works to sell in the US. With the profits from their art, I am able to pay Rogelio for his invaluable translation work. So the villagers know that their art is saving their stories for the generations to come.

I am delighted to give slide talks about the Emberá. I can bring samples of the baskets, masks and carvings.