Iyarina | Andes and Amazon Field School

Science and Indigenous Knowledge:
learning together for a better future

WHO WE ARE

Iyarina is a center for Learning and research in the Ecuadorian Amazon with primary strengths in the Humanities and secondary strengths in the Life Sciences. It is located in a Kichwa speaking community on the South bank of the Río Napo with extension campuses on the Río Nushino and Curaray in the nearby Waorani territory. It is the Ecuadorian home of Shayarina Amazonian Resilience, a US 503-C registered in Arizona. Shayarina works closely with Fundación Cotococha, an Ecuadorian registered non-profit, to carry out work on Amazonian sustainability.

For over 20 years Iyarina has also been home to the Andes and Amazon Field School (the educational side of our network) jointly sponsored by Title VI National Resource Centers at the University of Wisconsin Madison, the University of Pittsburgh, Florida International University, and Brigham Young University. Each summer we bring together indigenous knowledge carriers, students, and faculty for 8 weeks of learning and research in the Andes and Amazon Field School. Collaborative research projects are carried out throughout the year. Together we seek to better understand the culture of the region and to find practical solutions for a sustainable future.

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What We Do

Teach Graduate Level Indigenous Language Courses

Host Study Abroad

Partner in Funded Research

Forest and River Excursions

Elizabeth Swanson Andi

Napu Kichwa Storyteller | ASU Alumni

"I grew up between two worlds, the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. Iyarina is a place where I can bridge these two worlds and work with my own family, indigenous knowledge carriers, study abroad students, and researchers. Here we build relationships with land and people, and through these relationships of understanding and empathy look to find solutions in a time where now more than ever we must join forces and face the climate crisis"