The Waorani are an indigenous people of Amazonian Ecuador who live on a legally recognised territorial reserve of more than one million acres between the Napo and Curaray rivers, where their subsistence economy is based primarily on hunting, gathering and gardening. While most reside in relatively permanent settlements with airstrips and state-run schools, their long treks in the forest, residential movements between villages, and temporary migration for employment with oil companies operating within the reserve all lead to a mobile way of life.

There are at present some 2,000 Waorani people living in more than 30 villages. All Waorani speak their native language, Wao-terero, a little-studied language that has yet to be classified among other indigenous languages of South America (Klein and Stark 1985). However, the emergence of state-run schools where only Spanish is spoken, combined with increased urban migration, threatens to replace the indigenous language in the near future.