Memoria Kukama

Fun matching game for learning the Kukama language and the ecology of the Amazon

This fun and challenging interactive educational game application features illustrations of the flora and fauna of the Amazonian jungle of Peru, with the names of plants, animals and ecosystems in the Kukama language and in the regional Spanish of Loreto, Peru, accompanied by audio clips spoken by a native speaker of the Kukama language that sound while playing the game. Plant and animal species are grouped into the Amazonian ecosystems in which they naturally occur. The ecosystems are ordered to simulate an expedition, in which the player travels from a Kukama village, through farms, secondary forest, rivers, lakes, streams, swamps, etc., until they reach the deep primary Amazonian forest.
The challenge of this “Kukama Memory” game is to match the illustrations of plants or animals with their Kukama names in the fewest turns. Ribbons of different colors are awarded based on the number of turns the player uses to complete one of the 40 matching game pages. As the player progresses through a matching game page, illustrations of habitats, and animals in action drawn by Matsés artist Guillermo Nëcca Pëmen Mënquë are progressively revealed. Each game page is preceded by a learning page, in which the local Spanish names for each plant and animal that occurs in the following game page are provided, along with a sound clip of the kukama name which plays upon being tapped.
The main objectives are to encourage the revitalization of the Kukama language and promote the intergenerational transmission of traditional ecological knowledge, which is essential for the Kukamas´ continued ecological conservation of their ancestral lands. This innovative application is part of a series of ecological applications in Peruvian indigenous languages, which so far includes Matses, Iskonawa, Kakataibo, and Kukama.