A Note from the artist:

This story-based abstract print is inspired by my latest trip deep in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest with the ACEER Foundation in July 2023. While on these ACEER Foundation trips, I am working side by side with Earth scientists and the Indigenous Maijuna Community, so I get to experience a unique combination of western science and Indigenous knowledge.

This abstract is specifically about a microhabitat found in the rainforest, called a “Supaychacra” in the local Spanish dialect, and known as a “Mañaco taco” in the Maijuna traditional language of Máíhìkì. As soon as you stumble upon this microhabitat in the forest, you know something is different. The dense understory of the rainforest suddenly opens up into a clearing with some thin tree trunks stretching to the canopy and dead leaves covering the ground as if walking through a deciduous forest in North America in the fall season. It is a startlingly stark contrast to the rest of the thick rainforest that requires a machete to cut a path through.

The scientific explanation for this microhabitat points to a specific species of tree, the Duroia Hirsuta, and a symbiotic relationship with the Myrmelachista schumanni, known as Lemon Ants. The Lemon Ants nest in the stems of the D. Hirsuta trees and are responsible for the understory clearing created around this grove of trees. The ants contain a formic acid and inject that acid through biting into all the other plant life surrounding their home in the D. Hirsuta trees. Within 24 hours of injection by the ants, the plants wither and die, creating more space and light for the D. Hirsuta trees to grow and for the ants to thrive.

When speaking with elders in the Maijuna Community, however, we hear of another more spiritual explanation for the cleared microhabitat in these upland forest ecosystems. According to the Maijuna, the Mañaco taco is caused by invisible, malignant and male supernatural forest spirits called Ma Baji. Ma Baji translates to “red clan” or “red group” because it is believed that the spirits paint themselves with annatto, a red-orange dye created from the seeds of an achiote tree. The Ma Baji are believed to be evil spirits because they steal children’s souls, causing them to die soon after. The Spanish name, “Supaychacra” translates to “devil’s garden” because of these spiritual beliefs surrounding this natural phenomenon.

I find the parallels of the spiritual and scientific explanations of the supaychacra microhabitats intriguing, as the spiritual beliefs are ancient, passed down for generations, whereas the scientific reasoning is relatively new, and yet there are overlapping themes. For example, ants are pretty small creatures, and when encountering a Supaychacra in the forest, they are practically invisible, like the invisible Ma baji. However, when getting up close to a lemon ant, you can see they are a reddish orange color, similar to the rust color of annatto dye from achiote seeds. The theme of death parallels the two theories as well with the Ma baji stealing the souls of children, causing them to die soon after, and the ants injecting formic acid into the other young understory plants, causing them to die soon after as well.

These parallels in the scientific and spiritual Supaychacra explanations are just one example of how Indigenous knowledge is based in a wisdom and understanding of the natural environment, centuries before scientific theories even became a thing.

The Maijuna, their land and livelihood are under siege by the Peruvian Government who is trying to build an illegal highway corridor directly through Maijuna Title Lands and Conservation Lands. This highway corridor would decimate Maijuna traditional culture and the primary forests they live in, including the Supaychacra microhabitats.

$10 of every print sold will be donated to the ACEER Foundation and designated for the fight against the proposed highway corridor threatening the survival of the Maijuna Indigenous Community. If you would like to help the Maijuna, the rainforest and help fight climate change, please also consider signing the petition at change.org.