ABOUT US
What is Last Look Back?
Last Look Back is a project which aims to preserve the Kawymeno Waorani culture and study their unique diet.
Who are the Kawymeno Waorani?
The Kawymeno Waorani are an indigenous community living in Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. While there are other Waorani groups which have been westernizing, the Kawymeno Waorani maintain their wild diet through hunting and gathering in the same location they settled in centuries ago. Additionally, it has been suggested that the Waorani have descended from a pre-stone age culture; they use wooden tools such as blowguns, darts, and spears in their hunting.
While the Kawymeno Waorani have had contact with the outside world and are by no means isolated from it, they do maintain a health and food system with marked differences from other indigenous groups in the area. This food system may be linked to the lack of chronic disease and infections experiened by the Kawymeno Waorani.
Last Look Back (LLB) has two main aims. One, to encourage the Waorani to preserve their culture and see value in it. We offer the Waorani opportunities to support themselves in a modernizing world that aviod compromising their way of life or exposing them to tourism. Two, to examine the Kawymeno Waorani’s diet, and their diet’s connection to the ecosystem they live in and its effects on their health.