Once upon a time in the Amazon rainforest, was a sacred fruit and Men.
Amerindian people passed down their culture to us, which came from ancestral traditions.
We’ve integrated this knowledge to our modern practices and skills we had from other ancient traditions such as calligraphy.
Whether it’s Latin, Arab, Hebraic, Sanskrit, Chinese or even Japanese, the art of writing is universal.
For us, this form of art started with street art…it brought us into a wild nature we never thought existed.
As the Latin expression says, “Spoken words fly away, written words remain”. It’s true, but written words can also fly above borders and imaginary worlds.
The following stories were gathered from Wayanas people from French Guyana.
Everything is true
Tout est vrai
– Rumors from the Jungle –
L’ARBRE GÉNIPA
In the olden times, the Earth was flooded and only one man managed to survive by climing on a Jagua tree. He only ate Jagua fruit because there were nothing else available.
It was still night and the level of the water started to slowly lower. The man, who couldn’t see a thing because it was too dark tried to know how deep the water was.
He dropped a Jagua fruit and heard “Tchkum!”
It was still too deep
Later, he dropped another fruit, “Shka!”, the sound indicated the floor was very close.
A third fruit and he heard “Tiapp”
“Finnally the sound of humid grounds”
Meanwhile, the tree was slowly shrinking as the light started to brighten up.
The man came down from the tree.
En attendant, l’arbre diminuait lentement et progressivement, tandis que la lumière augmentait peu à peu. L’homme descendit de l’arbre.
Celebration
The Pija eagle feathers are mine!
The Pija eagle feathers are brought
The feathers are dancing
Genepia is brought
They brought genepia so the youngsters would be strange
They have kusipë
Which make girls look pretty
To make the girls look pretty, they brought rooster tail feathers
They are going, strange
The dancers are strange
LE GARÇON
Well, the boy is ready
He is being “roucoued”
- “I’m going to roucou you” is told him
His seat is placed and everything is done to dress him up
- “No, I don’t want it to be done like this” says the boy,
“I’m only going to drink Genipa”
And he drinks “gloup!”
Then, just after, the Genipa motifs start to come out on his skin, very sharp but also very beautiful
Jagua, Tribe Culture
We are the forest
Our art is millinery
We are from the streets
Our art is ephemeral
We are from the streets
Our art is millinery
