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This International Women’s Month, we honor the Indigenous women championing their people, culture, and land.
Throughout the Amazon, Indigenous women are leading fights against extractive industries attempting to exploit their territory while also maintaining the struggle to protect future generations from the colonial disruption of their cultural practices. Indigenous women are not only protectors of the land but also keepers of ancestral knowledge, ensuring the survival of their culture, their people, and the Amazon.
The Chapra Nation are an Indigenous people who have lived in reciprocal relationship with the land in the Peruvian Amazon for over 7,000 years. Colonialism deliberately targeted and destabilized the leadership structures of the Chapra people, who traditionally honored women’s central roles in addressing social and cultural issues within their community.
Yet, Chapra women have continued to resist this erasure. In the past decade, several strong women have reclaimed their community leadership roles. One of them is Olivia Bisa Tirko, the first woman President of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation in the Peruvian Amazon. Olivia’s leadership has broken barriers in the governance of the Chapra people, inspiring women and youth to feel pride in their Chapra identity and stand up to predatory oil companies.
For decades, the Chapra Nation has endured and resisted the plunder and environmental destruction of their ancestral homeland. Most recently, on October 3, the North Peruvian Pipeline, which is run by the state-run oil company Petroperú, leaked at least 1,500 gallons of oil into the Amazon, devastating the Pastaza River and severely impacting 17 surrounding Indigenous communities, including the Chapra Nation, by jeopardizing access to food and water. Their deep connection to the land was disrupted, impacting their ability to sustain themselves and consequently, protect the Amazon.
“Indigenous peoples represent a hope for all life, because if the Amazon has remained intact until now, it is thanks to those who live there, protecting it and resisting (extractivism). If Indigenous peoples disappear, the Amazon disappears,” Olivia reminds us.
Extractive industries threaten not only the land and its defenders but also the very existence of the Chapra Nation, committing what Olivia describes as cultural genocide. Women serve a critical role as cultural keepers in the Chapra Nation, passing on their deep ancestral knowledge to their children to preserve their traditional ways of life and stewardship of their homeland. As a leader, she is revitalizing how her people understand women’s role in their community, highlighting their valuable contributions and challenging patriarchal colonial structures.
“It is very important to acknowledge that behind a good leader, a fighter with vast knowledge, there is a mother with her ancestral wisdom, with her knowledge that has raised and shaped that child.”
By highlighting the importance of women’s leadership and the passing of ancestral knowledge to future generations, Olivia is ensuring the survival of her people and the protection of the Amazon.
We continue to stand in unwavering solidarity with women defenders like Olivia by amplifying their leadership in the climate justice movement and mobilizing solidarity funding through our Amazon Defenders Fund.
Join Olivia and other Indigenous women fighting for their land and future. Share her story and stand in solidarity with their resistance.
