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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Arawak of Suriname

The Arawak of Suriname, numbering approximately 3,300 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are described as an indigenous Arawakan-speaking people of northern South America whose traditional territories extend across Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Venezuela They are an Indigenous people, with Arawak (Lokono) as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the South American Indigenous people cluster of the Latin American and Caribbean Peoples. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Dutch is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Arawak

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples
Country: Suriname
People Cluster: South American Indigenous
Primary Language(s): Dutch (nld)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 3,300
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG016424
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Pray for the Arawak of Suriname

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

—
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Dutch
Language Family: Indo-European

100%
%
Dutch Speakers

Media Resources in Dutch:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film
MagdalenaView Film

4 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Dutch:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
1750 Dutch Staten Vertaling Bible✓
Herziene Statenvertaling (HSV)✓✓✓
Het Boek✓
New Dutch Translation (de Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling)✓

4 entries

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Dutch bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Arawak:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Arawak of Suriname

The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever!
readPsalm 22:26

Pray that the lost will feel a deep hunger for God, be drawn to Him in their affliction, and find lasting satisfaction and salvation in Him alone.

But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
readMark 4:20

Pray that those who have never encountered the gospel will have the opportunity to receive it, and that it will fall on good soil and bear much fruit.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
readJohn 10:28

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have assurance of eternal life, knowing that no one can snatch them out of the loving hand of Jesus.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
readMatthew 9:37-38

Pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up believers to send out into His harvest field, which is ripe and ready.

Arawak Across Countries (ROP3 - 100472) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

5 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
ArawakPG016353ArawakGuyana15,000No Longer UnreachedGuyanese Creole EnglishEthnoreligion
ArawakPG047233ArawakUnited States3,600No Longer UnreachedEnglishProtestantism
ArawakPG016424ArawakSuriname3,300Unengaged and UnreachedDutchEthnoreligion
ArawakPG016328ArawakFrench Guiana1,000No Longer UnreachedArawakEthnoreligion
ArawakPG016456ArawakVenezuela425No Longer UnreachedSpanishEthnoreligion

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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