Whispers of the Amazon: The Last Voices of the Sapara Nation

Photography as Ceremony by Daniela Miranda | Antüpewma Rülkelme Mella

This body of work activates photography as ceremony — an act of listening, remembering, and protection.
Through large-format portraits, oral histories, and sound, it honors the Sapara people of the Ecuadorian Amazon — their ancestral knowledge, their dreams, and their forests declared by UNESCO a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Each image is a prayer for cultural survival and ecological reciprocity.

Press Overview

Whispers of the Amazon: The Last Voices of the Sapara Nation

Whispers of the Amazon is a photographic and storytelling project by artist Daniela Miranda | Antüpewma Rülkelme Mella, created in collaboration with Sapara leader Manari Ushigua. Through portraiture, oral history, and environmental imagery, the work documents the ancestral wisdom and climate resistance of the Sapara people of the Ecuadorian Amazon—whose language, declared a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (2001), is now spoken fluently by only three elders.

Presented as large-format pigment prints on Japanese Kozo and linen paper, adorned with gold leaf and embroidery, this series invites viewers to experience photography as ceremony—an act of remembrance, reciprocity, and protection.

Rooted in my Mapuche lineage, I approach photography as medicine—a way to remember, to honor, and to bridge worlds. Each portrait, landscape, and gesture becomes a site of prayer, a space where witnessing replaces extraction and art becomes ceremony.

This work asks us to look at extraction and erasure not as history, but as the living crisis it is now. Once numbering over 20,000, fewer than 700 Sapara remain today, with only two elders still fluent in their language. Each image is a reminder that what is vanishing can still be protected—if we learn to listen.

Whispers of the Amazon invites viewers into this listening, into the fragile beauty of those who still live in sacred relationship with the land—and into the collective responsibility we share to act while there is still time.

A person dressed in traditional indigenous attire, including a feathered headdress, face paint, and beaded necklaces, standing outdoors with green foliage in the background.
Two wooden canoes float on a river with a wooded shoreline in the background.
A torn piece of paper with a quote written in Spanish, 'Nuktaki todo es uno todo es vida' in black cursive font.

The Heart Remembers- Ecuador 2024
Pigment print on Kozo paper, hand embroidery with silk thread and 23.75k gold leaf 30×40 in | Edition of 5 + 2 AP

A young boy with black hair squatting on a forest floor among dense green foliage and red flowering plants, examining something closely in his hands.

Where the River Remembers-2025
Pigment print on linen paper
24 × 18 in | Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Child of the Achiote Tree- 2025
Pigment print on Kozo paper, hand embroidery with silk thread
13 × 18 in | Edition of 10 + 2 AP

Two children with muddy legs and feet standing on a rocky ground near water, looking down.

Kin of Water- 2025
Pigment print on Kozo paper
13 × 18 in | Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Close-up of an elderly woman with wrinkled skin and dark hair, wearing a white shirt, in a natural outdoor setting.

She Who Held the Stories, Ecuador-2024 
Pigment print on Kozo paper, hand embroidery with silk thread
30 × 40 in | Edition of 10 + 2 AP

A woman with face paint, colorful feathers earrings, and a black beaded necklace smiling outdoors.

The One Who Received -2024
Pigment print on Kozo paper
13× 18 in | Edition of 5 + 2 AP

A man sitting outdoors, holding a piece of food in his right hand, looking at the camera. He has short dark hair, tan skin with some reddish patches, and is wearing a black t-shirt and shorts.

Food of the Ancestors-2024
Pigment print on Kozo paper
13 × 18 in | Edition of 5 + 2 AP

All works printed with archival pigment on Kozo or linen paper.
It keeps coherence while honoring your material choices.

Torn paper with an inspirational quote in handwritten style: "The forest is the memory of the world. When it disappears, the Earth forgets who she is."

From

the Artist

“I arrived not as an expert, but as a listener.
These photographs were offered — in ceremony, in conversation, in the hush between dawn and firelight.

This project is a prayer woven in image, language, and breath. To preserve without distortion. To amplify without imposing.

May these images remind us that witnessing is a sacred act — and that the stories we choose to carry can either extract, or awaken.”
— Daniela Miranda | Antüpewma Rülkelme Mella

Exhibition Details

Exhibition Specifications

Medium: Pigment prints on Japanese Kozo and archival Linen paper, with hand embroidery and gold leaf interventions
Dimensions: Kozo works — 13 × 18 in (unframed) | Linen works — large-format prints up to 30 × 40 in
Framing: A mixture of framed and unframed works, depending on material and curatorial design
Year: 2024–2025
Edition: 5 + 2 AP
Location: New Jersey, USA

Installation Components
This exhibition integrates soundscapes and video created in collaboration with the Sapara Nation. The auditory landscape — voices, dreams, and forest sounds — expands the visual experience, transforming the gallery into an immersive environment where ceremony, ecology, and storytelling converge.

For exhibition, licensing, or acquisition inquiries:
📩 dani@danimiranda.co
🌐 www.antupewma.com


Supported by the Naku Foundation | In partnership with the Sapara Nation

Mini- Film Documentary

Cacao + Climate Change

Cacao + Climate Change,” a mini-documentary that I had the privilege of filming, which delves into the fascinating connection between cacao and our rapidly changing climate. Witness the captivating stories of Ecuadorian farmers and their firsthand accounts of the challenges they face in today’s world.

This thought-provoking film not only highlights the urgency of embracing ancestral wisdom and sustainable practices, such as biodiversity farming, but also serves as a testament to the power of storytelling and the importance of raising awareness about the impact of climate change on the cacao industry.