Between 2016 and 2018, artist Mona Caron, in collaboration with local activist and artist, Raúl Ayala, painted a mural on a 50 meter tall building in Quito the capital of Ecuador. The mural represents the protection of 6 Amazonian and 3 Andean indigenous territories – Huaorani, Kichwa, Shiwiar, Sápara, and Shuar.
The nine women painted towards the bottom of the mural are some of the key people fighting the government and large companies that are causing irreversible damage to their land. For many years the women have played a pivotal role protesting the continuous exploitation of the land and the resulting contamination of the water and damage to the natural environment.
Despite a 2018 referendum voting overwhelmingly against projects that are damaging to the environment, the Ecuadorian Government continues to auction land for oil exploration and mining. Catastrophic oil spills are still being reported in the Amazon – just last week Amazon Watch reported that 8000 barrels of crude oil was spilt into the northern Amazon rainforest in Peru. Ecuador also signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People but has not been obtaining their free, prior and informed consent before approving oil and mining projects on their land.
In 2018 officials from 24 Latin American and Caribbean states signed a legally binding environmental rights pact containing measures to protect land defenders. However, according to The Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network (WECAN), these women have continued to be threatened. In January 2018, Patricia Gualinga, a Kichwa leader from Sarayaku, Ecuador, who is fighting to stop oil extraction in the Amazon Rainforest, experienced an attack on her home and received death threats. She told Global Witness, “If the intent to attack and threaten me was to instill fear to paralyze me, it failed. Following this incident, I am more motivated than ever to stand strong and work to defend the rights and territories of Sarayaku and all of the Amazon threatened by extraction.”
The women featured within the mural, travelled to Quito and collaborated with the artist by painting their own traditional face markings onto their portraits. The mural, placed in the capital city, is a reminder that the fight on the Amazon frontline has an effect on, and is the responsibility of, the whole world population.
The women featured on the mural
Zoila Castillo, is vice president of the Amazonian Indigenous Parliament of Ecuador, and member of the ancestral Kichwa people of the Bobonaza River basin in the heart of the Amazon jungle of Ecuador. In 2013 she organised the Amazonian Women’s March from the Amazon to the city of Quito to demand from the government: the non-expansion of the oil frontier in the south of the Ecuadorian Amazon; the defence of the Yasuni National Park; and the defence of the territory of the isolated indigenous peoples Tagaeri and Taromenane.
Gloria Ushigua is a member of the Sapara people. She is president of the Sapara Ashinwaka Women’s Association, which works to promote the human rights of indigenous women. She has actively participated in the international conferences on Climate Change and different forums of the United Nations. Currently she is facing a legal investigation imposed by the State to participate in demonstrations against the oil companies.
Cristina Gualinga is a member of the Original Kichwa People of Sarayaku. She was a leader of the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Pastaza and participated in the march of 1992 for the legalisation of the indigenous territories of the Amazon. Together with her Sarayaku people they won a demand to the Ecuadorian State for the violation of the Right to Prior Consultation in the Indigenous Territories.
Rosa Gualinga is a leader of the Shiwiar nationality and was elected Woman and Family Leader of Shiwiar Nationality of Ecuador. From an early age she began her tireless struggle for the protection of their territory and the rights of Shiwiar women in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Currently their territory is threatened by the bidding of oil fields that would affect them directly.
Alicia Weya Cahuiya, is the vice president of the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador. She has worked for the preservation of the Waorani territory and for the protection of the isolated indigenous peoples Taromenane and Tagaeri, the last two groups living in voluntary isolation in the Yasuni. Before serving in her current position, she was President of the Waorani Women’s Association. Alicia is one of the few Waorani women who have had the opportunity to speak before the National Assembly of Ecuador, giving a message for the future of their people, of the territory and of the serious impacts they are experiencing when oil reaches their lands.
Dominga Antún, is a woman of the Shuar Nation of Ecuador. She is an expert in the sacred songs of her people and the ancestral practices of agriculture. She is the leader of an initiative that seeks to preserve their tradition that combines the magic of songs, and the cultivation of the earth in harmony with the cycles of crops, climate and life. “A people without culture is a people without identity, if we keep singing and sowing we can continue living and defending our land.”
Blanca Chancosa, founded the Indigenous Campesino Federation of lmbabura in 1974, with the slogan of the struggle for land, culture and respect for identity; For life and for justice. Together with CONAIE, she promoted initiatives against the External Debt of Ecuador and denounced the fumigations of Plan Colombia. Since 2012 she has been the coordinator of women for Saramanta Warmikuna. She has represented the indigenous peoples of Ecuador in national organizations and before international organisations. She is the current vice president of the Ecuarunari.
Carmen Lozano is a member of the Saraguro People, and a leader of women of the Ecuarunari. She has been a leader of her people and also of important indigenous, national and international organisations. She has organised peaceful marches for the defence of water and territories threatened by the exploitation of mines in southern Ecuador.
Josefina Lema is a leading woman in the indigenous movement in the province of lmbabura and the Otavalo people. Josefina is dedicated to the care of the Pachamama, the care between women and of human beings from the application of ancestral medicine, a knowledge that she acquired from her elders. Currently, she is focused on the exercise of ancestral medicine to take care of the health of the communities and the Pachamama.
If you would like to see more about this topic The Last Guardians, is a documentary made in 2018 about the Ecuadorian Amazon and the struggle of indigenous community members as they defend their land and culture against the threats they face from extractive industries.
Further information
Mona Caron is a San Francisco-based artist focused primarily on creating murals in public space. Mona’s works designed for the street include a project called WEEDS, which is a metaphor about resilience, as well as several ultra-site-specific and community-immersive narrative murals reflecting the past, present, and future imaginaries of their neighborhood. Her art-ivism projects connect with social movements, such as the Quito mural.
www.monacaron.com
I: @mona.caron T: @monacaron
Amazon Watch since 1996, has protected the rainforest and advanced the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. Amazon Watch partner with indigenous and environmental organisations in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability, and the preservation of the Amazon’s ecological systems.
www.amazonwatch.org
I: @amazonwatch T: @amazonwatch
*Main article image is a view of the mural in Quito, Ecuador ©Mona Caron
