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NINA

THE NATURE

OF STORYTELLING

Photography by Victor Bastidas

 

Nina Gualinga in conversation with Elizabeth Swanson Andi about the fragile state of Kichwa culture, plant medicine and the power of belonging. 

Nina Gualinga is an international advocate for the rights of women, Indigenous peoples, and climate justice. She is of Swedish heritage and Kichwa from the Sarayaku community in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is a spokeswoman for Mujeres Amazónicas, a collective of Indigenous women in the Ecuadorian Amazon defending their lives and lands, fighting against systematic violence against Indigenous women. Here she speaks with Elizabeth Swanson Andi, fellow conservationist and activist, about their common Kichwa heritage their childhoods in the Amazon, their calling to activism to save their homes and the magic and wisdom of their native culture under threat.