143

GETTING TO KNOW THE AWÁ TIKAL

NATIONALITY IN ECUADOR, CULTURAL AND

LINGUISTIC ASPECTS

ACERCAMIENTO A LA NACIONALIDAD AWÁ EN EL ECUADOR, ASPECTOS

CULTURALES Y LINGÜÍSTICOS

Recibido: 12/06/2024 – Aceptado: 11/11/2024

José Miguel Obando Arroyo

Docente titular auxiliar en la Universidad Técnica del Norte

Ibarra - Ecuador

Magíster en Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza Bilingüe Español Ingles

Ponticada Universidad Católica del Ecuador

jmobando@utn.edu.ec

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8338-1237

Cómo citar este artículo:

Obando, J (2024). (Enero – Diciembre 2024). Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality

in Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects. Tierra Innita (10), 143-152. https://doi.

org/10.32645/26028131.1311

144

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Cómo citar este artículo:

Obando, J (2024). (Enero – Diciembre 2024). Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects. Tierra Innita (10), 143-152. https://doi.

org/10.32645/26028131.1311

Resumen

La etnia Awá es una de las catorce nacionalidades indígenas reconocidas que actualmente viven

en el Ecuador. Sus mitos, leyendas, idioma y demás manifestaciones culturales, así como su

estilo de vida, los relacionan estrechamente con la selva, el lugar donde ellos viven, de donde

obtienen sus alimentos y sustento y al cual protegen. Este trabajo bibliográco tuvo como

objetivo determinar los temas de investigaciones previas acerca de las características culturales

de la nacionalidad Awá en Ecuador. Con este n, se realizó una revisión sistemática de los

trabajos publicados entre los años 2001 y 2023. Los datos evidenciaron que la información

presentada describe y analiza la situación de esta nacionalidad en Ecuador en aspectos como

sus orígenes, la región en la cual habitan, como están legalmente organizados y su cultura, en la

cual incluyen sus leyendas y su idioma el cual se encuentra en peligro de extinción.

Palabras Clave: Awá, Ecuador, Awapit.

Abstract

The Awá is one of the fourteen indigenous nationalities that currently live in Ecuadorian

territory. Their myths, legends, language and more cultural manifestations, as well as their

lifestyle, strongly connect these people to the jungle, the place where they live, from where

they get their food and the place that they protect. This document study attempted to determine

the themes and ranges of previous research about the cultural features and language of the Awá

Nationality in Ecuador. The reviewed works corresponded to publications between 2001 up to

2023. The accounts evidenced that the information published describe, analyze and discuss the

situation of the Awá Nationality in Ecuador in aspects like their origin, the region where they

live, how they are organized and their culture, including the myth of their origin legends and the

language which is in endangered.

Kew Words: Awá, Ecuador, Awapit.

145

Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in

Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects

Cómo citar este artículo:

Obando, J (2024). (Enero – Diciembre 2024). Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects. Tierra Innita (10), 143-152. https://doi.

org/10.32645/26028131.1311

Introduction

Just above Surinam and Uruguay, with an extension of 256.370 square kilometers is one of

the three smallest countries in South America. As far as the population, the estimated number

citizens of Ecuador is of eighteen million people from which 64% live in urban areas and

36% in rural areas (INEC, 2022). Ecuador has a contrasting ethnic diversity: 71.9 % of the

population self-identies as mestizo, 7.4 % as montubio

, 7.2 % as Afro-Ecuadorian, 7 % as

indigenous, 6.1 % as white, and 0.4 % as other ethnic groups (UNFPA, 2022). With the aim to

overcome centuries of subordination of diverse peoples and nationalities, the 2008 constitution

declared Ecuador as a multinational country.

Ecuador recognizes 14 indigenous nationalities,13 Indigenous languages and 18

indigenous groups (Haboud, Estudios sociolingüísticos y prácticas comunitarias para la

documentación activa y el reencuentro con las lenguas indígenas del Ecuador, 2019). This

clearly evidences that in spite of being one of the smallest countries in the region, Ecuador is

ethnic and language diverse. However, not all the 14 nationalities are native to Ecuador. That

is the case of the Awá, a cross border nationality that constitutes the subject of study of this

review.

This literature review attempted to nd out what is known about the Awá who live in

Ecuador, what their current situation is and what the ranges of published material about the Awá

Nationality in Ecuador between 2001 and 2023 are.

Based on the articles and publications from 2001 to 2023 The emergent topics were:

1. The recognition of the link between the Awá nationality and the local environment

(Alvarez & L., 2007), relationship with nature (Marroquin & Riveros, 2019)

2. Awapit, the language spoken by Awá, is an endangered language (Haboud & Toapanta,

2014). The displacement of the tongues goes hand in hand with inequity situations and

its social and political effects (Haboud, 2019). The awapit is partly learned through the

formal education system and is practiced in family and community contexts (Gómez,

2010).

3. The need of more effective interventions from the viewpoint of modern and participative

communication (Ávalos & Culqui, 2020).

Historical Ancestors and Current Diaspora in Ecuador

The Awá is a cross border group that currently lives in the south western jungle of Colombia

as well as the northwestern jungle of Ecuador. However, there is no coincidence among the

data regarding its origin. The website Etnias del mundo mentions that the origin of the Awa is

unknown as so far, archeological studies have shown that the Colombian and the Ecuadorian

coast region was inhabited by the culture known as “Tumaco” (2008). The same source accounts

that, after the arrival of the Spanish conquerors to that region, the chroniclers refer to those

groups as some semi nomad people with a lower degree of development in relation to the

1 The Royal Academy of Spanish Language denes the term montubio as: a rude person. In Ecuador the term is used

to refer to the mestizos who live in the coast region.

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Cómo citar este artículo:

Obando, J (2024). (Enero – Diciembre 2024). Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects. Tierra Innita (10), 143-152. https://doi.

org/10.32645/26028131.1311

communities living in the Colombian and Ecuadorian Andes. The source also mentions that

due to the form of the houses they lived in, they were called “Barbacoas”. A second source,

the ofcial website of Confederación de Nacionalidades Indigenas del Ecuador (CONAIE)

mentions that historic registers suggest that the Awa are descendants of the Mayas from Mexico

(2014). The source also includes accounts that mention that three hundred years ago, they began

to move south to Central and South America and eventually, they settled in Colombia.

In that country, they occupied the southwestern jungle in the region between Altaquer,

Kuaiaquer and Ricaurte belonging to the departments of Nariño and Putumayo. However, just

beginning the twentieth century factors like the consolidation of some municipalities and road

construction towards that region accelerated the colonization of the Awa territories. Eventually,

the so called “la guerra de los mil días entre conservadores y liberales” (The thousand-day war

held between conservative and liberal) forced the Awa to move south up to Ecuadorian territories

(Pineda, 2010). Later on, the pression of timbers, the deforestation caused by palm farmers in

the Colombian western rainforest forced the Awá who lived in Colombia to continue moving

south to Ecuador. It was until 1982 when they, sponsored by “Fundación Altrópico of Ecuador”,

started to organize (Walsh & Santacruz, 2006). The process ended with the recognition of the

so called “Federación de Centros Awa del Ecuador” (FCAE) and the allocation of 101 hectares

that later was recognized as Reserva Étnica Forestal Awá Kwaiker”. The land part of this

reserve is part of the provinces of Esmeraldas, Carchi and Imbabura.

Since 1986, this nationality celebrates annual assemblies with the participation of

representatives of the 24 Awá centers who currently live in Ecuadorian territory, even though

there are only 22 legally recognized – The remaining two are settled in Sucumbios are in the

process of being legally recognized (Huanga, 2022). The meetings are organized by “Federación

de Centros Awá del Ecuador”, that pursues improvements in the quality of life of its members

within and outside its territory in Ecuador (Consejo de Participación Ciudadana y Control

Social, 2015).

As for their population, there is no data available about the number of members of

this nationality that initially came to Ecuador. The results of the 2001 census conducted by

Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC) established that 3.283 Awá lived in the,

at that time, 22 provinces of Ecuador (Chisaguano, 2006). Data published by Care Project

Ecuador in 2014 stated that there are 3500 Awá living in Ecuador distributed in 22 communities

in three provinces namely: 1000 in Esmeraldas, 2000 in Carchi and 500 in Imbabura. From

then on, the population of the Awá has increased signicantly. By the year 2021, the number of

Awá living in Ecuador was of 8000 approximately (La Hora, 2021). There is no data published

in the last two years about the number of Awá currently living in Ecuador. However, recent

visits to the communities evidenced that there is a rise in the number of inhabitants in the Awa

communities. For example, in “El Baboso”, a small Awá community settled in Carchi, the

number of inhabitants is of 300. Oral accounts collected by the researchers among habitants

of some Awá communities of Carchi suggest that in big communities like San Marcos there

are around 3000 people (Huanga, 2022). Even though there is no still data published by INEC

about the population of the Indigenous Nationalities in the last year, considering that currently

there are 24 Awa communities in Ecuador, it is expected that the number of Awá easily reaches

10000 inhabitants.

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Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in

Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects

Cómo citar este artículo:

Obando, J (2024). (Enero – Diciembre 2024). Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects. Tierra Innita (10), 143-152. https://doi.

org/10.32645/26028131.1311

Methods

This document study collected data from research for the period between 2001 and 2022 about

the situation of the Awá, their culture and language in Ecuador. Data collection was conducted

through documental analysis techniques.

Being a literature review, the researcher must ensure that the search methods are

comprehensive, systemic and justiable (Hallinger, 2013). With the purpose of identifying

themes, it was used the inductive method of document selection. To write the review, there

were taken the following steps suggest (1) Writing the research questions, (2) Identifying key

words, (3) Sources selection, (4) Evaluation (5) Findings extraction in a nal discussion (Briner

& David, 2012). Information search was conducted in Google Scholar. The key words used to

conduct the search were: Awá Nationality in Ecuador.

The studies included thirteen articles, one book, two theses and a booklet on the Awá

published between 2007 and the year 2000. Two of the articles were published in 2007, one in

2010, three in 2013, one in 2014, one in 2015, one in 2018, two in 2019 and one in 2020. The

book was published in 2009, the thesis in 2013 and the booklet in 2017. It was also necessary

to look for maps that allowed graphically see where the Awá live. There have been research

reports, governmental entities as well as international organization publications from 2001 up

to 2022 that describe, analyze and discuss the situation of the Awá Nationality in Ecuador in

aspects like the regions where they live, how they are organized and their culture, including the

myth of their origin legends and the language which has particular linguistic features.

Findings and discussion

Cultural practices

Culture is a broad concept that includes beliefs systems, social forms of organization as well as

particular ways to interact with the material aspect of environments. The Awá Tikal strongly

believe in their myths and traditions which make them feel that they are one with the jungle

as they live off the jungle and live to protect it. In addition to this, they also try to preserve

their celebrations and social meetings like the funeral rites, curse, minga

, communitary minga

and the Awa assemblies which have constituted the space where the representatives of this

nationality discuss the topics of interest for the 24 Awá centers (including the two new ones

settled in Sucumbios) that are part of the Federación de Centros Awá del Ecuador. Their music,

dances, handcrafts and other cultural manifestations are also subject of preservation by the

Awá Tikal. As for the language, even though in the last decades has been included in the list

of endangered languages, it constitutes one the major cultural exponents of the culture of this

Nationality.

The myth of their origin

“The Awá – Tikal”, their name in Awapit

, translated as “People of the mountains” see themselves

as part of the jungle. “We are sons of the mountain; our mission is to protect the jungle. We

cannot live one without the other. What happens in the jungle it also happens to us” (Arcos &

2 Minga: free farm labor

3 Awapit: the language spoken by the Awa - Tikal

148

Cómo citar este artículo:

Obando, J (2024). (Enero – Diciembre 2024). Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects. Tierra Innita (10), 143-152. https://doi.

org/10.32645/26028131.1311

Mora, 2012). This concept constitutes one of the major components of the Awá daily life. As

previously transcribed by Arcos and Mora, from the words of Awá Tikal inhabitants, it can

be stated that this community live off the forest. Furthermore, they have been recognized as

strong defenders of its territory in the jungle, their cosmovision, culture and language. For

these people, nothing is aside of their myths and legends which have been spread through oral

tradition throughout its history. Most of their uses and practices that later become rules are

related to the “Myth of Origin of the Awá” (Arcos R. , 2013).

In the beginning, the world was just inhabited by trees. The dense jungle was by

everywhere. One day, from a tree (ti), it began to come out a black “barbacha”(titkaya**

Tipuj**)

, it grew and grew in such a way that soon it reached the ground. When that

happened, it acquired the human form. In that way, the rst man who was to live in the

jungle was born and named “Atim Awá”. He learned to live in the mountain, to eat its

fruit, sh and hunt. This was a tall, dark skin and big nose man. However, his main gift

was to be able of talking with the trees. At that time trees could talk among them and

with the Atim Awá. From this conversation, between the rst man and the plants, all the

secrets and wisdom of the mountain were transmitted. Every day a tree taught the Atim

Awá something different to survive. As time passed, he began to get old, being alone

and not being able of sharing with others like him caused a great sadness in him. One

day, from the tree from where in the past had come out the Atim Awá, it began to come

out a new barbacha, a white one this time (pucha*** Tipuh). In the same way, they grew

until they got the ground and once they touched the soil it took the form of a woman,

the rst Ashampa***.

Cosmovision

In the world of the Awá Tikal, it can be found two ways to conceive the cosmos namely a

circular and vertical. From a linguistic perspective, the rst one, is an analogy between the tree

and the man (Arcos R. , 2013). The former one where everything begins and nishes, where

the myth of their origin is created and recreated continuously and the latter, the man, in whom

that principle is replicated constantly and eternally. The second one, a vertical vision of four

worlds:

Tabla 1.

Cosmovisión

WORLDS SU FEATURES

Fouth

Ampara Su

The place where the creator lives

Third

Kutña Su World of the dead, a big house that puts up all the dead. Irit

Second

Pas Su

The world where the Awá live

First

Masa Su Ish kun Su the world where the short people who eats smoke live

Tipuj: Translation Awapit – Spanish – Barbacha: Translation Spanish - English (epiphytic plants that hang of the trees

that look like hair or beard).

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Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in

Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects

Cómo citar este artículo:

Obando, J (2024). (Enero – Diciembre 2024). Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects. Tierra Innita (10), 143-152. https://doi.

org/10.32645/26028131.1311

Taken from: Myth and Education in the culture of the Inkal Awá. Arcos, 2013

The Language

As far as their language, awapit, even though there are some centers in which it is spoken by

most of the members of the community, there are also places where just a few speakers can

be found. As for the center where awapit is used for most interactions, the community of San

Marcos in the province of Carchi, has the higher percentage of speakers (Gómez, 2010) On

the other hand, recent visits of the researchers to the community “El Baboso” in the parish

Tobar Donoso, also in the province of Carchi, give account that the center is probably one of

the places where just a few speakers of the language can be found, only eight members use

awapit to communicate sporadically. Most of them are middle age and have not received formal

instruction on awapit. What they know about the language has been learned from their parents

or grandparents.

Linguistically, the awapit, the language spoken by the Awá also known as Coaiquer or

Kwaiker, since the studies conducted by Beuchat & Rivet in 1910, it is usually classied a part

of the family of the Barbacoan languages (Gómez, 2010). As many of the ancestral languages

in America, it is of the agglutinating languages which means that it generates its vocabulary and

meanings by adding morphemes to a root. It is important to highlight that compared to other

languages, the differences that may arise between awapit and languages like the Spanish are

not only formal but that also respond to the logical thinking scheme consequence of a different

cosmovision and social realities separated by distances in space and time (Contreras, 2009).

The language awapit also presents phonetic and morphological typological features that

differentiate from other languages. Phonetically, it is the only language in Ecuador and one of

the few in the world that has voiceless vowels with a phonemic value. Morphologically, this

language has a system of conjunctive – disjunctive sufxes as for the case of the person, where

a conjunctive morpheme uses the rst person in statements and the second in questions. The

disjunctive is used for second and third person in statements and third in questions (Curnow

& Liddicoat, 1998). Findings of studies conducted between 2009 and 2010 showed important

differences in lexis and grammar between the Ecuadorian and the Colombian dialect.

Synthesis

Encapsulating, the reviewed literature gives account that the Awá Tikal approximately arrived

in Ecuador 80 years ago. Currently, they live in the four northern provinces of the country

namely: Esmeraldas, Carchi, Imbabura and Sucumbíos. The data from the census of 2001

accounted that 3286 Ecuadorian citizens self-dene as members of the Awá Nationality. Even

though there is no current ofcial data about its population, it is undeniable that the number

of Ecuadorian citizens that belong to this nationality has increased signicantly in the last two

decades. Internally, they recognize 24 communities even though, legally recognized there are

22 communities.

As for their culture, the myth of their origin, their cosmovision, current lifestyle, religious

practices, beliefs and their language, everything is connected to the jungle, their origin and end.

Its language, awapit, presents phonetic and morphologically features that make it different from

other languages spoken in Ecuador. The alert about the language is clear as the data conrms

150

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Obando, J (2024). (Enero – Diciembre 2024). Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects. Tierra Innita (10), 143-152. https://doi.

org/10.32645/26028131.1311

that this language is considered one of the endangered indigenous languages in Ecuador.

Although there are still Awá centers in Ecuador where awapit is the dominant language, there

are also Awá settlements where Spanish has become the language used quotidianly.

Conclusions

The search of data for this review stablished that there were not found works published between

2001 and 2004 related to the culture and language of the Awá Nationality in Ecuador. There were

some works published before 2001which due to the criteria of selection were not considered in

this work.

From 2007 on and up to 2020 there have been several studies conducted in Ecuador and

Colombia about the Awá community. In Ecuador, the themes and ranges of the studies, books

and theses published between 2001 and 2022 related of the Awá present information about their

history, their arrival to Ecuador and current legal situation, the agreements between the Awá

communities settled in Colombia and those settled in Ecuador, their culture and their language.

The accounts suggested that this community came from Central America and settled in

Colombia from where emigrated to Ecuador. There is no current data available about the number

of Awá living in the country, but it is suggested that they easily exceed in10000 distributed in

24 Awá centers in Ecuador settled in four northern provinces in the border with Colombia, there

are a few Awá disseminated throughout the country though.

They have a rich mythology that clearly stablishes a strong connection with the jungle.

However, there is a contrasting situation between the strong recognition of the linkages of

this Indigenous Nationality with their surrounding environments and the lack of interest in

assessing the state of their language endangerment.

Recomendations

Even though, there have been efforts to study the Awá in their different facets, it becomes

necessary that new studies are conducted to determine the current situation of the twenty-four

Awá centers settled in Ecuador.

Culturally speaking, the Awá are the owners of invaluable cultural manifestations like

the myth of their origin, that may be subject of study and analysis to better understand the

cosmovision of this nationality.

As the situation of the awapit in Ecuador is critical, not the same situation in Colombia,

it is recommended that new researches are conducted to identify the centers where the language

has almost disappeared to generate proposals oriented to re – vitalize it.

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Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in

Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects

Cómo citar este artículo:

Obando, J (2024). (Enero – Diciembre 2024). Getting to know the Awá Tikal Nationality in Ecuador, cultural and linguistic aspects. Tierra Innita (10), 143-152. https://doi.

org/10.32645/26028131.1311

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