The Puinave are an Indigenous people associated with Guainía, the Inírida River, and surrounding Amazon-Orinoco regions. Their communities are connected to fishing, hunting, chagra agriculture, craftwork, oral tradition, river travel, and forest knowledge.
The Puinave live in a landscape shaped by rivers, forests, savannas, rocks, and seasonal cycles. Their knowledge reflects careful observation of animals, fish, plants, weather, and water levels. This knowledge is practical, cultural, and spiritual.
Like many Indigenous peoples of eastern Colombia, the Puinave have faced pressures from missions, colonization, migration, conflict, resource extraction, and state expansion. Cultural survival depends on language, territory, elders, and youth participation.
For Dulce Amazónica, the Puinave show that the Colombian Amazon is geographically diverse. It includes not only dense rainforest but also river corridors, blackwater systems, and transition zones that support distinct Indigenous lifeways.
One of Many Voices
This community is one of many Indigenous peoples whose presence, knowledge, and artisanías are represented through Dulce Amazónica in Guatapé, Colombia. When you visit, you meet an ambassador from one of our partner communities in person.