Amazonian women have been guides to the very essence of life on Earth. Indigenous women throughout Abya Yala share and practice cosmological wisdom to resist brutal violence against their bodies and hostility to their spiritual relationship with the cosmos and Earth. They have resisted, protecting the lives of their relatives, animals, rivers, and forests – despite colonial threats attempting to erode away their traditional methods of preserving intergenerational and ancestral wisdom.
In Indigenous communities, wisdom keepers hold traditional forms of knowledge along with the responsibility of practicing constant reflection and learning, strategies which are crucial to counteract the threats that have disrupted our Earth and the survival of humanity. The obstacles are numerous: extractive industries are invading their lands, deforestation is rampant, and land defenders in the region are being murdered, while others are receiving death threats. However, they continue sharing their ancestors’ organic methods of cultivating food from the forest and revitalizing the land and other living systems. Recognizing women’s evolving role as ancestral and contemporary “keepers of knowledge” is critical as the world moves to address the pressing need for ecological restoration guided by Indigenous knowledge.
Indigenous women base their traditional methods on respect, reciprocity, care, and love expressed through spiritual ceremonies and songs. They embody the powers of spirits, plants and animals, deities, ancestors, and elemental forces. During COVID-19, women healers used their knowledge of the Amazonian herbal plants, they were crucial in providing care and treatment for some of the symptoms people infected with COVID-19 were facing.
Spiritual authorities and warriors at the front lines to save ancestral lands
The U’wa people in Colombia highly respect the Tayokinas (spiritual authorities). Through the Tayokinas, the community tells the Warjayo (chief) what to do. The Tayokinas always guide the Wayjayos (political authorities), they are the women who advise and guide the Warjayo on the spiritual dimension to carry the will of the communities and as spokespersons. A significant number of Indigenous women have been able to produce certain forms of authority in the Indigenous world.
Women defend their territories as spiritual authorities and carriers of ancestral knowledge, transmitters of language, culture, and art because this is the space where they live their lives and dreams. However, as Nina Gualinga states, “When we fight against extractive companies and the destruction of our territories we are more exposed to multiple forms of violence from extractive companies, systematic and structural violence and discrimination from the state and society, and violence in our own families and communities.”
Bakebitimis (“One Who Catches a Child”): a midwife
The ancestral birth practices of the Shipibo-Konibo and other Indigenous cultures are central to essential midwifery wisdom. Elders like Shipibo-Konibo midwife, Delia Mahua Perez, are crucial to supporting the health and well-being of women and children in the community. Traditional midwifery practices must be passed on to future generations to ensure safe childbirth and revitalize Shipibo-Konibo ancestral knowledge and healing.
During the different waves of COVID-19, Bakebitimis protected women’s lives and brought new lives preventing maternal mortality and obstetric violence from discriminatory governmental health practices.
Amazonian warriors rearming communities of affection
Thousands of Amazonian women in Brazil protested against the “marco temporal,” a legal challenge to Indigenous land rights placing a stringent time limit on Indigenous peoples rights to their ancestral territories. The supreme court is still considering the legal theory during a case brought by the Xoelong peoples. Bolsonaro’s racist and genocidal administration sees this challenge as an opportunity to legalize Indigenous lands land theft by grabbers for industry. “What they want is to take away our land. This is illegal. This is unconstitutional. They want to tear up our roots and we will not allow it,” said Alessandra Korap Munduruku, from the Amazon’s Munduruku people. The gathering of more than 4,000 women of more than 170 of Brazil’s 300-plus tribes, who sang and held banners condemning growing anti-Indigenous violence, shows us that knowledge, experience, and solidarity are present on the streets through the movements of women’s bodies. They created a vital space to celebrate and preserve their roots and protect Indigenous lives and territories from mining and agribusiness operations.
Amazonian people, and humanity, risk losing vital knowledge about healing, living, and relating with Earth living systems. Standing in solidarity with Indigneous communities to guarantee the intergenerational transmission of ancestral knowledge is urgent. We all have a role to play.
Our Amazon Defenders Fund will continue mobilizing direct solidarity funds into the hands of Amazonian women wisdom keepers, healers, and ancestral authorities, who are resisting by practicing reciprocal and holistic interactions with the forest and Earth. But overall, because they are on the front lines, these women are bringing solutions to our major contemporary crises. For the Amazon, our climate, and our future, we must lift up the power of Amazonian Indigenous women, as the cure for our Earth.
