“My participation within the march as an Amazonian lady is to reward our rights and violence worldwide.” Portrait of Josefina Tunki, the ex-Govt President of the Authorities Council of the Shuar Arutam Folks in Puyo, Ecuador, March 8, 2024.
Tatiana Lopez for NPR
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Tatiana Lopez for NPR
With rue in hand, guided by the sacred smoke of incense and the legacies of their grandmothers, the Indigenous ladies of the Ecuadorian Amazon met within the streets final week to commemorate their ongoing struggle to guard the Amazon and to convey visibility to their rights, their considerations and to demand the well-being of their our bodies and territories.
Girls from totally different Indigenous nationalities traveled from their territories to town of Puyo on March 8 to march by means of town’s streets as they do yearly on Worldwide Girls’s Day as an emblem of their ongoing resistance and to demand equality, a dignified life, well being, the protection of their territories and to boost their voices towards violence.
Indigenous ladies participate within the march in Puyo, Ecuador on March 8, 2024.
Tatiana Lopez for NPR
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Tatiana Lopez for NPR
Indigenous ladies participate within the march in Puyo, Ecuador on March 8, 2024.
Tatiana Lopez for NPR
“Peace, love, braveness, life. Let folks know with these 4 phrases why we stroll and will they elevate their voices for all of us.” Marisol Yasacama holds a placard written in Kichwa that claims “We should make the voices of women and younger ladies heard.”
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“I march as a result of it’s a special occasion for all ladies and since we shout with energy to elevate different ladies and thus assist one another collectively.” Portrait of Ñay Gaba of the Waorani and Sapara nationality.
Tatiana Lopez for NPR
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Tatiana Lopez for NPR
“So ladies are free in order that they don’t deal with us badly, to be in peace, to stay and never be pushed apart, and to imagine presidential roles equally” Rosa Chuji, a land defender of the Shiwiar nationality, wrote her quote within the Shiwiar language.
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This 12 months, the march was self-organized by ladies’s collectives and grassroots organizations. Amongst them had been Mujeres Amazónicas, Warmicuna Basis, Sacha Warmi Collective, Socorro Violeta, Awana Collective, Waorani Girls’s Basis, Pastaza Unida y Solidaria, and Casa de la Mujer.
The occasion introduced collectively round 100 ladies who marched with placards that learn “Free,” “In case your voice doesn’t attain we’ll all shout for you,” “Immediately not all our voices are right here as a result of from the grave you can not shout” and “you get uninterested in listening to it, we get uninterested in dwelling it,”as the ladies chanted slogans of resistance and chanting out load slogans of resistance, considered one of them was:
Alert!
Alert!
Alert who walks
Of the ladies’s struggle
For Latin America
“I’ve taken half on this march to defend our proper as Amazonian ladies, for our voices to be heard.”- Andrea Wampach of the Achuar nationality, left. “We’ve taken half on this march to defend our rights, we don’t need extra violence, wewant equality.” Maria Antonela Mukuink of the Achuar nationality, proper. Puyo, Ecuador, March 8, 2024.
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Tatiana Lopez for NPR
The march resounded all through Puyo till it made its approach to the Pastaza governorate, the place the ladies congregated in a illustration of their energy and variety. Girls from Ecuador’s Indigenous nationalities, comparable to Sápara, Kiwcha, Shiwiar, Achuar, Waorani and Siona, accompanied by ladies from close by cities, expressed the person and collective struggles they encountered every day of their territories and across the nation.
The ladies expressed their rejection of the hike within the nation’s worth added tax charge, price range cuts to universities, and the continued destruction of the nation’s rainforests, insurance policies imposed by the nation’s present president, Daniel Noboa. Elevating consciousness in regards to the significance of defending ancestral territories from extractive initiatives in Indigenous communities and guaranteeing the rights of girls nationwide was a transparent assertion marchers made throughout the gathering.
Through the march I requested a number of ladies if they might reply on a sheet of paper the query “why are you marching?” – these are a few of their responses:
A younger lady holds the rue plant, an emblem of energy, and lights up incense to cleanse the trail ladies march.
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A younger lady holds the rue plant, an emblem of energy, and lights up incense to cleanse the trail ladies march.
Tatiana Lopez for NPR
“It was an important day for me. A girl who is inspired to stay, to smile within the face of our mom’s struggle within the womb, I really like her as I’ve been rising. Seeing my grandmother’s footprints as we speak makes me filled with pleasure. I’ve develop into a courageous lady. As a result of my grandparents’ goals are coming true, males are going to destroy the world, we already know that the top of the world is approaching.”
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Tatiana Lopez for NPR
“It was an important day for me. A girl who is inspired to stay, to smile within the face of our mom’s struggle within the womb, I really like her as I’ve been rising. Seeing my grandmother’s footprints as we speak makes me filled with pleasure. I’ve develop into a courageous lady. As a result of my grandparents’ goals are coming true, males are going to destroy the world, we already know that the top of the world is approaching.”
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“As a result of I’m for Girls’s Day and we’re marching that we now have rights.” Portrait of Sharika Machoa of the Kichwa nationality.
Tatiana Lopez for NPR
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Tatiana Lopez for NPR
“I march for all times, to be right here, for ladies, and if at some point I am not right here, I would like others to march for me too.” Glenda Yasacama an activist of the Shuar nationality holds a placard that claims “Collectively free with out worry.”
Tatiana Lopez for NPR
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Tatiana Lopez for NPR
“I march for all times, to be right here, for ladies, and if at some point I am not right here, I would like others to march for me too.” Glenda Yasacama an activist of the Shuar nationality holds a placard that claims “Collectively free with out worry.”
Tatiana Lopez for NPR
Tatiana Lopez is a documentary photographer based mostly in Ecuador and america. You may see extra of her work on her web site, tatianalopez.area, or on Instagram at@tatianalopez_om.
Photographs edited by: Virginia Lozano
Textual content edited by: Zach Thompson
