Salomé Aranda: Tochtlita

Women are caretakers of our communities — our healers. They're defenders and creators of our future. In the face of exploitative practices against human and ecological life, Indigenous women sustain matriarchal lineage and fierce leadership. This #WomensHistoryMonth we honor land defender and leader of the Kichwa People of the Villano Basin, Salomé Aranda.

Salomé Aranda, an Indigenous woman and human rights defender. A relentless steward and keeper of her people’s ancestral territories. As the leader of the Kichwa People, she has led the resistance of women against oil extraction in Block 10 since it began thirty years ago. Aranda is a part of a larger collective of powerful Indigenous matriarch leaders who are shattering the paradigm of ecological sustainability in Ecuador and across the world. Aranda’s visionary leadership pushes people, institutions, corporations, and government to decolonize the imaginaries about territories like the Amazon and Indigenous peoples. Her example urges us to join the movement against capitalistic extraction that threatens Mother Earth and human existence.

Art by @Tochtlita