Nina Gualinga was born 30 years ago in the heart of the Amazon jungle, in the Kichwa community of Sarayaku, home of jaguars and the midday sun, and located on the banks of the Bobonaza River, in the Ecuadorian province of Pastaza.
She grew up immersed in nature, exploring rivers and sharing guayusa with her grandparents.
Her name means “fire” in Kichwa.
The worldview of their community, based on the Kawsak Sacha, considers the jungle as a living being with its own rights.
That is why they promote its protection and respect as an integral organization, a key principle in the historic victory of Sarayaku in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2012, which ruled in favor of the community against the Ecuadorian Government for oil exploitation, which marked a milestone in the indigenous fight against extractivism in Ecuador.
The heritage of resistance deeply marked Nina Gualinga, who, as the firstborn of an indigenous mother and a Swedish-Finnish father, found in this cultural duality the strength to inhabit different worlds and perpetuate the struggle of her ancestors.
Widely recognized as an activist, she rejects that title because she considers her commitment an innate conviction.
“Sarayaku is my home, my sanctuary.
The Amazon guards the stories of our ancestors and ensures the future of our children,” she points out.
Beyond her global recognition as a defender of the jungle, Nina faces a more intimate struggle that she kept silent for a long time: the one she waged against the mistreatment inflicted by her ex-partner and the father of her child.
Until, four years ago, she courageously decided to break this silence and revealed a profound problem that demands justice and transformation: gender violence against indigenous women.
Your personal battle
Since her adolescence, Nina met her ex-partner, a mestizo man with economic and political influence at the local level.
“I was 13 years old and he was 19. Today I realize that there was a power relationship there,” she says.
For more than a decade that the relationship lasted, Nina experienced physical and psychological violence, which affected not only her physical and mental health, but also her family relationships.
“The only thing he couldn't take away from me was my love for the jungle,” she adds.
The abuse from her ex-partner caused a fracture in her lower back.
Amidst his promises that he would change, the process of separating was difficult.
“It took me a long time to get out of that relationship.
I have been a person who is not afraid to speak out against abuse, but my own story was the most difficult,” Nina confesses.
In 2015, she separated and began a difficult judicial journey.
Her first formal complaint was in the Judicial Unit of Violence against Women and the Family of the Pastaza Judiciary.
Despite receiving a distress ticket—a legal remedy that seeks to prevent the aggressor from approaching the complainant—the case was filed without further progress.
Nina filed a new complaint in 2018, accompanied by recordings and text messages as evidence, and again encountered a stalled process.
But she didn't give up.
In 2020, she opted for a public complaint, sharing images of her injuries on social media, something with which she hoped to generate pressure to obtain results.
However, her efforts seemed in vain and her complaints did not advance until 2022.
On February 23, after almost a decade since his first complaint and four years after bringing his case to the public domain, a judge from Pastaza decided to call the accused to trial.
With this, the process went to the criminal guarantees court, which must set a trial hearing date.
This partial victory has not been without challenges.
Together with her lawyer Tamara Vaca, Nina has denounced countless irregularities in the judicial process, the negligence of the Ecuadorian justice system and the lack of prosecutors trained in gender cases.
“These procedures constitute a violation of several principles of due process;
and this institutional violence is another form of revictimization,” adds the lawyer.
“I can't imagine what other indigenous women go through”
Nina's experience reflects a broader reality.
Indigenous women face various forms of violence, compounded by limited access to legal resources and protection.
“If I, who am a public figure, receive this treatment, I can't imagine what other indigenous women go through,” says Nina.
Ana Calle, a lawyer specialized in indigenous rights, highlights that women in indigenous communities and environmental defenders face two forms of violence: that which comes with the extractivism of companies, which includes rapes, disappearances and murders, and community violence perpetrated by members of their own community.
This situation leaves women in a vulnerable situation as they lack the resources to report.
The underlying problem lies in the persistent gender gaps in Ecuador.
According to a UN Women report, the multidimensional poverty rate among indigenous women reaches 78.1%, more than double the national average.
Additionally, the World Bank reports that 6 in 10 women in Ecuador have experienced some type of violence, with 321 femicides recorded in 2023. Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian women are the most affected, with approximately 7 in 10 women having experienced violence.
Calle highlights the invisibility of cases of violence in indigenous communities due to limited access to the justice system.
Nemo Guiquita, Amazonian leader, emphasizes that machismo persists in the region and there are still unpunished cases.
Furthermore, he mentions disappearances and rapes in indigenous communities, and femicides of indigenous women are rarely documented.
Between January 1, 2014 and October 31, 2023, 114 femicides were reported in the Amazon region, according to the Alliance for Mapping Femicide in Ecuador, an alarming reality that remains in the shadows.
Heal women to heal the earth
To denounce the violence and negligence of the judicial system, Nina received the support of the sorority circle of Amazonian Women, Defenders of the Jungle, a collective that describes itself as “a network of women united in defense of territory, culture and a life free of violence.”
Committed to the fight against violence derived from extractivism, social inequality and gender violence, they organized in 2013 to protest against the Government's plans to expand oil concessions on protected lands.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Nina Gualinga (@ninagualinga)
Since then, they have established a female mandate to protect defenders and, in 2022, they inaugurated the House of Amazonian Women, a shelter full of light and art, which provides support to indigenous women and girls in situations of violence.
This space not only offers accommodation and legal assistance, but also group therapy, empowerment workshops and support.
For them, violence is connected to colonialism, gender inequality and extractive violence.
Here, women can recover and reimagine resistance.
“We are tired of seeing our sisters unprotected and revictimized by the judicial system and civil society,” says Yanua Vargas, a member of the collective.
“Here we accompany each other, we support each other.
By healing women, we heal the Earth,” she adds.
Although Nina's legal process is ongoing, for her and her colleagues, this is a significant milestone in their fight for a future in which indigenous women enjoy full protection and recognition, especially for those on the front lines. defense of the Amazon.
As Nina highlights: “Behind every strong woman, there is a story marked by adversity.”