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“I was a child on the move: I was always on one side of my parents while they were arguing. I was born in the middle of the conflict”, recalls Katty Gualinga, while sailing on the Amazon River for the first time. The young Kichwa was born in 2000, the year in which her people, Sarayaku, fought to prevent an oil company from entering their territory located in the Ecuadorian Amazon. At 25 years old, his movement has not stopped and is now heading towards a new struggle. Gualinga is one of the young faces of the Amazonian flotilla Yaku Mama, which so far has already crossed Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, and is crossing Brazilian territory to bring the voices of indigenous people and the Amazon to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30), in Belém.
“It is important for me to continue this legacy that my parents and grandparents left me,” Gualinga says of the motivation to undertake this 3,000 kilometer journey, together with 50 other people, more than half of whom are under 35 years old. Like her, most of her colleagues were born in the midst of conflicts marked by extractivism and have experienced the transformation of their territory in recent years due to climate change and the expansion of the oil and mining frontier.
“We are the ones who inherit the strength and wounds of the Amazon,” explains Alexis Grefa, a member of the Quipa foundation and member of the organizing team, about the decision that the flotilla will be made up mainly of young people. The goal of this trip, says Grefa, is to demonstrate that indigenous youth not only resist, but also lead processes of change “with ancestral wisdom and new forms of communication.”
A river of learning
In 2015, Gualinga recalls, Sarayaku representatives brought the “canoe of life” from the Amazon to COP21 in Paris. The boat, handcrafted in its territory, crossed the continent by plane, made a symbolic navigation in the Canal de la Villette, in the center of Paris, and was finally placed in the Pavilion of Indigenous Peoples, to remind us that the jungle and the voices of the Amazon must be included in treaties on climate change.
Ten years later, Representative Kichwa crosses the Amazon with the same message. This time she sails harder, accompanied by Mother Water (Yaku Mama), to witness her first COP. “We will reach that space where decisions are made so that it is understood that indigenous peoples must participate in building the agenda,” says youth leader Sarayaku.
During their trip, Gualinga and the other eight young people from his city discover how the COP works, the negotiations relevant to the Amazon and what their role will be in this conference. “How will we continue to resist without direct funding?” reflects on one of the issues that worries him most and which has been one of the main requests of indigenous peoples in recent years.
According to the UN report State of the world’s indigenous peoplesless than 1% of international climate finance goes directly to indigenous communities. However, 80% of the biodiversity left on the planet is protected in its territories.
The experience of its people is linked to another of the main demands towards COP30: the elimination of fossil fuels. Sarayaku’s history has been recognized internationally since the 2012 ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which prevented the oil company from operating in its territory. Despite the ruling, threats continue to increase not only for these people, but for all who live in the Amazon. “On this trip we saw that the fight against extractive and mining companies is common in all countries,” says Gualinga.
Cessation of fossil fuels
The dynamics of the flotilla allowed Gualinga and his companions to share their experiences. During the more than 15 hours of navigation from one community to another, during lunches, before naps or during walks, it is common to hear exchanges of stories. The stories are usually accompanied by the loud laughter of Wakemo Huamoni, one of the three Waorani representatives; the attentive gaze of Carmen Amaguaya, of Andua nationality; or the notes of Kunsob Alfaro, Guna of Panama, always eager to learn more about an Amazon, which he had not known until then.
Wia Cahuiya is one of those who takes advantage of these moments to talk about his experience with fossil fuels. Of Waorani nationality, she was contacted for the first time 60 years ago by a group of American missionaries and her history has been marked by the presence of oil companies in the territory.
The community of Cahuiya, Ñoneno, is located in Yasuní National Park. This site is known as an example of energy transition, following the 2023 Popular Consultation, in which Ecuadorians voted to stop oil extraction in block 43, within this protected area. However, the activity did not stop. “My idea of fighting was not born only from protecting us Waorani from the Yasuní; it was born from the fact that the Tagaeri and Taromenane are also there,” he explains, referring to the two peoples in voluntary isolation who live in the area.
Their stories fit into one of the requests that the members of the flotilla repeated throughout the journey: “to protect intangible areas free from exploitation”. Cahuiya hopes that the flotilla will have an impact in this COP and that its requests will actually be heard, unlike previous ones. At 31, he is already an expert in climate negotiations: he participated in COP26, COP27 and COP28. On this occasion he will bring Yasuní’s experience and support the importance of a just energy transition.
The power of narratives
In addition to his presence at these events, Cahuiya has found an ally in communication to spread the word about community issues. At the age of 17 he started recording videos of oil spills and thus made more people aware of the situation. “It works as a defense tool for us,” he says.
On board the flotilla it is common to see young people taking photos, recording videos and spreading their experience on social networks, where the majority accumulate thousands of followers. “In the fight against the climate crisis there must be the stories, voices and meanings of indigenous communities. Through our narratives we too resist”, says Mitzy Violeta Cortés, a 26-year-old young woman from the community of San Sebastián Tecomaxtlahuaca, in Oaxaca, Mexico, belonging to the Ñuu Savi people.
Cortés is one of two representatives of Mexico sailing in the Amazon flotilla. In his first encounter with the Amazon, Cortés was already in four countries and met nearly a dozen communities. For her, one of the main lessons was learning more about the solutions promoted in each territory. “We will not ask to be included in their transition, but to demonstrate that our collective consensus capabilities and our ancestral technologies are what the world needs to learn to face the crisis,” he explains. Through the Cultural Hacking initiative, he also works on educational processes that address climate change from indigenous worldviews.
Between stories, learning, laughter and reflections, the requests of young people are strengthened and completed through the current of the Amazon rivers. For Mitzy, the dynamics of the flotilla represent precisely what the voices of young people try to convey: “We are committed not only to preserving, but also to seeing what can be changed and what new things can be promoted.”
