Ecuador: Indigenous Women organize in Ecuadorian Amazon
Warmi
Wangurina
“The reaction strategies to the harassment
of indigenous communities had determined the conformation of community
organizations that were before both nonexistent and unnecessary,” said
Amazonian legislator, Mónica Chuji.
Western culture began to
infiltrate Sucumbios in 1972 with the region’s oil prospects and a subsequent
influx of settlers. Subsistence changed, and men were forced to leave
such methods as hunting and fishing behind as much of their land was
either reduced or destroyed by the new population and companies. Many
men signed up to work as journeymen on the new settlers’ land. Women,
too, had to assume new roles.
These new influences altered customs and
gender relationships in the communities, defining roles that traditionally
were not clearly defined. The woman’s workload was increased as they
assumed more tasks, given the increased work production, in addition
to looking after the family and heading the community.
The land was converted into a space exclusively
for women and so production control was passed on to women as well,
developing a new and profound bond with the land, while the village’s
men began to experience the reverse.
The Kichwa women’s first organization
initiatives took place in 1972, with Jatun Comuna Aguarico — an organization
of the Kichwa towns of Sucumbios — focused on agricultural projects
and healthcare training.
“At this time, we were not still allowed
to participate openly in the organization’s decisions, since our focus
was centered in contributing economically to the family with the raising
fish and poultry, and health projects,” said Celia Mancilla, former
president of Warmi Wangurina.
In 1993, a year after the FOISE’s creation,
a basic health and nutrition project was developed. The Kichwa women
had a major role in the execution of the project, and the need to strengthen
the women’s commission was visible.
“In the public environment, women began
to gradually make inroads in the organization. Their role was still
tentative because they mostly depended on the men’s decisions as they
had little opportunity for formal education as well as little experience
leading organizations as this was thought to put on hold their ‘women’s
duties’ in order to dedicate themselves to the organization,” Chuji
maintains.
Warmi Wangurina is present in 47 Kichwa
communities in Sucumbios that live in conflict with the oil companies
that are under the impression that the land the Ecuadorian government
has given in concession to them is their property. As a result, the
companies do not respect the constitutional regulations. For example,
the communities have a right to be consulted before any activity is
carried out on their land.
“We, the Sucumbios Kichwas, are migrants,
coming from Sarayaku [the Amazonian province of] Pastaza. We arrived
30 years ago, but we still preserve the strength of our village; and
here, in the new Sarayaku of Sucumbios we are determined to revive in
each community the resistance that the women of these lands have shown”,
Chuji affirms.
The Amazonian parliamentarian mentions
the resistance of the town of Sarayaku de Pastaza in front of Compania
General de Combustibles (CGC), an Argentine subsidiary of the U.S. corporation,
Chevron Texaco (LP, June 18, 2003).
At that time, the men, in a moment of weakness, wanted to negotiate
with the company, but were rebuked by the women.
“If the men negotiate, we women threaten
to throw them out,” said Teresa Noteno, current president of FOISE.
“Often, the communities say that they
should be able to negotiate well with the companies, but they do not
realize that that is not possible. The women are there to remind others
of that,” notes Felix Cerda, the human rights director of FOISE.
Noteno maintains that in order to face
companies it is necessary to instruct all the women so that they are
capable of resisting and assuming leadership in each community. In order
to do so, Warmi Wangurina has designed a program that serves as a permanent
accompaniment to women holding leadership positions in this organization.
“Every year, two women who are elected
by the other women in the group, work with me to learn how to promote
the organization,” Norteno says.
Despite its continued development and
expansion, Warmi Wangurina is
now looking for its autonomy. “We want to be a separate organization
that is affiliated with FOISE, not just its ‘Women’s Commission,’” stated
Chuji.
This will contribute to the strengthening
of FOISE, she adds, but more importantly “to return to the beginning
of complementarity which ruled in the indigenous communities before
the infiltration of Western culture, when community decisions were made
by listening to the voices of men and women equally.”