Voces de la tierra: las memorias del árbol de ojé y las yanchamas bora de Ivá Wajyamú, Víctor Churay Roque

For some decades the inner bark of the ojé tree, processed and converted ino yanchama, has been used as a canvas for the paintings made by Bora, Huitoto and Murui artists of the Ampiyacu basin, from where they enunciate poetics that relate ontologies and forms of being, inhabiting and representing the world. In this article we will discuss the social, political and ritual life of the ojé tree, taking as a reference the work of Víctor Churay Roque or Ivá Wajyamú (1972-20022), a bora painter from Pucaurquillo, Mariscal Castilla, Loreto, Peru, who pioneered the dissemination of painting on yanchama as an artistic genre in the Lima context. Churay not only captured the image of the ojé tree for the first time, he also captured a series of narratives that present this plant species as an entity with agency and the capacity to mediate between various social spheres and achieve representation in the external and globalized environment.