Whispers of the Amazon

A language at the threshold

In the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Sapara language is held today by a small number of fluent elder speakers. While younger generations primarily grow up with Spanish and Kichwa, Sapara community members are working to carry their language forward.

Whispers of the Amazon is an ongoing photographic project about what is held within a language: stories, ecological knowledge, memory, kinship, and ways of understanding the forest.

Through photographs, recorded voices, and developing textile interventions, the project follows the fragile and collective work of language continuance. It asks what is at stake when a language may not reach the next generation—and what it takes to keep it alive.