The Book of Our Jungle

Brief

In Bajo Urubamba, the ancestral languages Yine and Matsigenka and their oral traditions were at risk of extinction. New generations of native communities were losing contact with their history due to the lack of written records. The challenge for Pluspetrol, which operates in the area, was to create a Social Responsibility initiative that went beyond assistance, seeking to preserve the intangible cultural legacy of these ethnic groups and strengthen ties with the community through an educational and sustainable preservation project that would make its commitment to local identity tangible.

Idea

Make stories live forever.The central idea was to transform oral tradition, which is ephemeral, into a physical and lasting legacy: a book. In collaboration with writer Teresina Muñoz-Nájar and community leaders, stories and legends that had never been written were compiled. These stories were captured in The Book of Our Jungle, a bilingual edition (in their original languages and Spanish), illustrated and distributed free of charge in local schools, allowing children…