In the beginning we all lived in British Guyana. When we heard the Wai Wai people were coming to spend some time with us on our indigenous reservation, we didn’t know the reason they were coming. They told us they would stay for some months, but right after they decided to remain about three years or so. What we didn’t know was that the Wai Wai had come looking to evangelize us, sharing with us about Jesus. The Wai Wai people had already been evangelized by the American missionaries some years before.

Right after the first evangelist crusade in the Amazon, some Mawayana accepted the gospel and had been baptized by the Wai Wai who are Baptist. The newly converted Mawayana didn’t have the support from other Mawayana who dwelt in other villages, and indigenous reservations; thus, they followed the Wai Wai missionaries straight to Nhamunda-Mapuera where they are originally from. The Wai Wai offered support and protection to those whom would follow toward the new destination. The first wave of Mawayana to Nhamunda-Mapuera didn’t have more than thirty indigenous people in total.

In a second Wai Wai evangelist crusade, they returned in order to evangelize not only those Mawayana who were undecided since the first time when the Wai Wai had been there, but also many other indigenous ethnic groups. This time around, the indigenous-evangelists went toward the Wajmatyry village, in British Guyana; however, when they arrived there, there weren’t any Mawayana living in the area, because they had been persecuted both by other fellow Mawayana and people from other ethnic groups who didn’t accept the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus. Worried with the whereabouts of those lost Mawayana, the Wai Wai sought information about them until they found them living in a village relatively far away. This time, the Wai Wai had the entire support of almost all Mawayana who were undecided about the gospel; and then, they baptized more than sixty individuals at once. The work resulted in more Mawayana leaving British Guyana toward the state of Para, in Brazil. It was during this wave that my siblings and I were brought to live among the Wai Wai in the Mapuera reservation.

I was already a teenager at about fifteen years old. The transition wasn’t too difficult for us among the Wai Wai, because all of us shared the same faith. I have four siblings, they are Maxipakna Mawayana (female, 80 years old); Kayawa Mawayana (female, 79 years old); Kwaxaxa Mawayana (female, 81 years old); and Kanahmã Mawayana (male, 78 years old). My name is Xaamã Mawayana, I am a man, 77 years old. All of us are alive at the time of this testimony, in July of 2023. The other indigenous-missionaries and I walked throughout the Amazon looking for other indigenous groups as well as isolated and endangered indigenous groups in order to evangelize them. We went as missionaries to the Xereu, Katuena, Tiriyo, Ixkariana, Waiana, and many other indigenous ethnic groups.

My people and I are thankful to God for having sent us Dr. Alvaro Cunha, a linguist, who studied our language, and advocates on our behalf without sparing any effort. IF IT WASN’T FOR HIM, WE WOULD STILL BE IN THE SAME STATE OF ISOLATION AND ABANDONMENT.

Presently, all of the Mawayana people are living among the Wai Wai ethnicity. We have gotten married with them, and with them we also learned their customs and language; however, we never left behind our own rituals and language assimilated with our forefathers. The miscegenation that happened among us was intense; we almost lost our very mores and values, but here we are alive so that we may commit with this and the future Mawayana generation that we will hold fast, strong and happy in the hope that we will increase in population again. All of us believe in God and are Christians. We are are not more than sixty Mawayana. There is neither Mawayana living in British Guyana nor in Roraima, Brazil, as some wrongfully affirm. All of us live, move and have our being within the Wai Wai environment in the Nhamunda-Mapuera as was previously mentioned above.