Of the Forest | Manari Ushigua | Granta

Of the Forest

Manari Ushigua & Zoë Tryon

Translated by Nick Caistor

‘We Indigenous peoples know how nature works, how water, mountains, trees function and relate to each other, how stars in space are connected with the earth.’

Manari Ushigua

Manari Ushigua was instrumental in achieving recognition for the Sápara as a distinct ethnicity from the Ecuadorian government, and winning UNESCO recognition for the Sápara language. He currently serves as an environmental ambassador for Ecuador’s Education Ministry. Previously, he was the elected leader of the Sápara and a representative of CONAIE, Ecuador’s national Indigenous confederation.

Photograph © Caroline Bennett

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Zoë Tryon

Zoë Tryon is an environmental and Indigenous rights activist and speaker. Since 2006 she has been working with Indigenous groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon and across the globe. She is an ambassador for the Achuar people, Fundación Pachamama and Amazon Watch, and has been active in the case against Chevron in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon.

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Translated by Nick Caistor

Nick Caistor is a British translator of more than eighty books from Spanish, French and Portuguese. He lived in Argentina for a number of years, where he was the BBC Latin America analyst. He has translated authors such as Isabel Allende, Roberto Arlt, Mario Benedetti, Julio Cortázar, María Dueñas, Fogwill, Juan Marsé, Eduardo Mendoza, Juan Carlos Onetti and José Saramago. He is a three-time winner of the Premio Valle-Inclán for translation from Spanish.

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