The Forest Foundation, Inc.

The Forest Foundation, a Durham-based non-profit, will be hosting for a month (9/18-10/16), Valentine, the tribal leader of the Macushi Indians, who has been invited to exhibit, demonstrate and participate in ceremonies and events surrounding the official opening of the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of the American Indian in September in both Washington, DC and New York, NY.

The Macushi live in the Kanuku Mountains of Guyana, South America– a UNESCO recognized Biosphere Reserve and focus of protection efforts by Conservation International. While in the country for a month, the goal of the “Artisans on Tour Program” will be to maximize opportunities for Valentine to exhibit and sell his communities’ art form of balata carving, as well as to generate publicity for needed “green” business, fair trade income generation, the protection of his mega-diverse home and the value of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

Valentine will be flying to New York on September 18th and will be traveling to Washington to participate in the events surrounding the opening of Smithsonian’s new Museum on the Mall the weekend of the 18th. The Forest Foundation will also be exhibiting at The Green Festival in Washington that weekend and Valentine will be providing demonstrations and selling gifts at our booth. Valentine is truly an international treasure, one of the finest artisans and carvers of balata in his village, he sculpts and molds beautiful human and animal figures from the natural rubber. Best sellers have included gorgeous 12 piece nativities with depictions of the Three Kings as indigenous Macushi; and a beautiful ark (as featured in the 2002 Green Mountain Coffee catalog, See picture), with Noah, his family and brilliantly sculpted animals of the South American rainforest, two by two! Other art pieces include giant versions of the individual animals, each with personality, and depictions of village life in the Nappi Village where he and the other artisans live.

Natural rubber, or balata, comes from a family of trees called Sapotacea, that produce a latex sap that acts as a sticky defense when the tree is injured. “Balateros,” those who harvest the balata for a living, knick the trees from the top down, scaling the 120 ft. trees to their high branches, creating rivulets of the sap that slowly drip to the base of the tree, where it is collected in pouches. Balateros are professionals that carefully nick the tree so that it does not kill it, and thus they can return to “sustainably tap” the tree again in subsequent years, much like maple trees in our North America. The balata is taken to processing areas where is heated and water is driven off. Bricks of the balata are then carried out of the forest and sold to artisans like Valentine, or the
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artisans tap the trees themselves. The production, purchase and sale of the balata products are a source of income sustainably harvested from the forest. The income generated goes far to supplement desperately needed funds for the Macushi people, who live inside the borders of one of the most important protected areas in the world, the Kanuku mountains– home to the largest population of raptors in the Americas, the Harpy Eagle, and numerous other endangered species.

The Forest Foundation is currently looking for generous donors to sponsor of Valentine’s Artisan tour, and will offer the opportunity for exhibition and demonstrations at zoos in NY and Washington, as well as to conservation group offices, university art programs and craft events. Stores who have purchased the Macushi figures in the past include: The Cathedral Shop, NYC; Crossroads Global Handcrafts, IL; Gossypia, VA; Nativities.com; Susan’s Christmas Shop, NM; The Peaceable Kingdom, RI; and One World Projects.

For more information about how you can help, please contact The Forest Foundation at (919)957-1505 or e-mail info@theforestfoundation.org. (Valentine and Eleanor at a craft festival in Guyana).