The origins
Reading Note
The stories and fragments presented here are taken from ethnographic sources, oral collections and reference works.
At JAGWA, we do not claim to transmit or embody these cultures. These texts are shared as... cultural testimonies, cited and respected, so as not to make invisible the origin of the jagua fruit tattoo and the ancient practices surrounding it.
Our contemporary work takes place in a different context, with a different responsibility.
Ëtïtoponpë pihtële
Once upon a time in the Amazon... there was a fruit and humankind.
The culture of the first peoples of South America is intimately linked to Jagua orGenipaThis fruit possesses certain properties.magic. It isKuyuli, the demiurge, who invented theGenipaby mixing ant nestsijukwith water and with the help of spirits.
Today, and for essentially the same reasons, we inscribe symbols on our skin using this same fruit.
The memory of the forests
More than 200 Indigenous groups live in the heart of the Amazon.
In a tiny part of the mythical rainforest in French Guiana, no fewer than 30 peoples coexisted before the arrival of Europeans. Today, only six indigenous groups remain:
Kali'na, Teko, Wayana, Wayàpi, Lokono and Paykweneh.
The following stories were collected from an elder, Kuliyaman, a tamousi, or tamo in the Carib language.
Source: Kuliyaman, Chapuis Jean and Hervé Rivière,
Wayana eitoponpë. (An) Oral History of the Wayana People.
Everything is true
THE GENIPA TREE
Long ago, the whole earth was flooded, and only one man managed to survive by climbing the jagua tree. He ate only the fruit of thejagua, due to the absence of any other kind of food. It was still dark, and the water level was beginning to drop slowly. The man, who could see nothing because it was very dark, tried to test the depth of the water.
He threw a Genipa fruit and heard "Tchkum!".
It was still quite deep.
Later, he threw another fruit, "Shka!" and the sound told him that the bottom was very close.
The third time, he heard "Tiapp!"
"There, at last, is the sound of damp earth."
Meanwhile, the tree was slowly shrinking, while the light gradually increased. The man climbed down from the tree.
FEAST
“Eagle feathers pija belong to me!”
We bring the eagle feathers , pija.
The feathers are dancing
We bring genipa
They brought genipa so that the young may become strange.
They had kusipë
What makes girls beautiful
To make the young girls beautiful, they brought rooster tail feathers.
They go, strange ones.
The dancers are strange.
THE BOY
Well, the boy is ready.
We apply roucou to him:
– “I’m going to roucou you!” they said to him.
We set up his seat and prepare what is needed to adorn him.
"No, I don't want it done like that!" said the boy.
"I'm just going to drink some Genipa!"
Then he drinks the Genipa: "gloup!"
Then, right after, the Genipa patterns appear on him, very clear and very beautiful.
The cultures and stories mentioned here belong to the people who uphold them.
JAGWA does not claim any cultural heritage from them, but recognizes their fundamental importance in the history of jagua.