About Inisha Nunka
“Inisha Nunka" (Grandmother's Mother Earth) is a preserved pristine rainforest in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Among the Shuar, not all ancestral territory remains untouched. Often, families have to sell their ancestral lands to make ends meet. Emergency healthcare, education needs, and basic living costs frequently force families to sell their lands for way below market value. This is a vicious cycle across the Amazon region that results from racist economic policies and a history of colonization, and it is a CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO CLIMATE CHANGE!
This initiative works to preserve and regain ancestral Shuar land for stewardship, conservation, and healing in one of the most biodiverse locations on the planet! Here is their Grandmother's home in the Ecuadorian Jungle near #macas.
Our programs and research areas are focused on three main things:
1) Support the continuation and practice of Ancestral Shuar Science. Specifically looking at traditional Plant Medicine Healing and Shuar medicine gardens or 'ajas'
2) Land Stewardship and Recuperation in what has been home to the Shuar People for the last 40,000 years
3) Community-led Tourism and Education
Together with Canadian Queen's University Researcher, PhD. Candidate Martina Paloheimo www.martinapaloheimo.ca and various other partners. We are working together to investigate, preserve and share Shuar Ancestral knowledge, land, and healing.
Who are the Shuar Peoples?
Ecuador's Indigenous movement is regarded as one of the most successful social movements for Indigenous people in Latin America. Indigenous groups have had to fight for legal recognition as a people and state resource since colonization in Ecuador (Rubenstein, 2007); The state officially recognized Indigenous peoples' rights to their cultures and land in its constitution in 1997 (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 1997).
Today, Ecuador is a multicultural state with 14 different Indigenous nationalities recognized, with 1.1 million Indigenous people, out of a population of 17.2 million peoples (Ortiz-T, 2019). Indigenous peoples live around the country, with 10 of 14 nationalities located within the Amazon region (Ortiz-T, 2019). Indigenous peoples organize themselves through several "local, regional and national organizations (Ortiz-T, 2019, para 1).
CONFENAIE is the largest Indigenous affiliation group in the region. It supports Indigenous rights, self-determination and the protection of their natural resources (CONFENIAE, 2020). The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon "represents about 15,000 communities, belonging to the Amazonian nationalities, Kichwa, Shuar, Achuar, Waorani, Sapara, Andwa, Shiwiar, Cofan, Siona, Siekopai and Kijus (CONFENIAE, 2020, para 1).
The Shuar live in the Amazon basin in what is now known as Ecuador. There are an estimated 200,000 Shuar people occupying over 800,000 Hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest.
Our projects are based just outside of Maca's City - in and around the communities of Buena Esperanza and Nunpaim within the larger region of Sevilla don Bosco in the province of Morona Santiago, Ecuador.
Our OveraRching Goals
1. Protect Ancestral Shuar Science
Preserve and rescue Shuar Culture for future generations to enhance the cultural and spiritual well-being of the Shuar. Preserve Shuar traditional ecological knowledge and promote Shuar Arts and healing. We are promoting traditional Shuar gardening and farming techniques to support more sustainable and healthy ways of living in communities. This also includes sharing Shuar knowledge to help bridge relationships with the more-than-human world. We are also looking to partner with researchers to help explore our plant medicine healing knowledge and techniques.
3. Community-led Tourism and Education
Provide sustainable economic opportunities for the Shuar Peoples through tourism. This includes retreats, and workshops at our Shuar Cultural Centre in the community of Buena Esperanza. This is to benefit the Shuar communities themselves, and to help educate outsiders as well. We hope to create exchange programs, and opportunities as we grow as an organization.
3. Environmental Stewardship & Conservation
Recover Shuar territory for preservation and protection of the rainforest for future generations. We do this by working to gain legal entitlement to traditional territory, and putting the land in trust. Working to recover and preserve Shuar land for future generations and thus supporting planetary health. We also have built an adopt a tree program, to save ancient Amazonian trees from deforestation.
Meet our TEAM
President Inisha Nunka Foundation
Plant Medicine Women and Knowledge Keeper
Plant Medicine Women and Knowledge Keeper
Secretaría de Gestión y Desarrollo de Pueblos y Nacionalidades
Ana "Kayla" Chiriap is not only the
Secretariat of Management and Development of Peoples and Nationalities she is the President and a founding member of Inisha Nunka. Together with her family they have made a promise to not sell or exploit their ancestral territories for future generations to come. As a graduate of
Escuela Superior Politécnica del Chimborazo -Espoch she has her degree in public administration!
She is the leader and face of Inisha Nunka.
Plant Medicine Women and Knowledge Keeper
Plant Medicine Women and Knowledge Keeper
Plant Medicine Women and Knowledge Keeper
Jenny Chiriap Kuish is a youth leader in the community, knowledge holder and artist. She is working to support women artesian work in the Amazon. She also works with plants, to do medicine healing and products.
Shaman and Elder
Plant Medicine Women and Knowledge Keeper
Tour Guide and Shuar Knowledge Keeper, Tono Chiriap
Tii Antonio Chiriap originally from Nunpaim Tii is an Shaman, Elder, and Shuar Knowledge keeper.
Tour Guide and Shuar Knowledge Keeper, Tono Chiriap
Awakchatai Junior Chiriap DIRECTOR EJECUTIVO
Tour Guide and Shuar Knowledge Keeper, Tono Chiriap
Born in Buena Esperanza Antonio knows everything you need to know about hiking in the jungle! He is an encyclopedia of plant knowledge!
Tour Guide and Translator - COORDINADOR GENERAL Chicham Chiriap
Awakchatai Junior Chiriap DIRECTOR EJECUTIVO
Awakchatai Junior Chiriap DIRECTOR EJECUTIVO
"Chicham" meaning language or communication in Shuar is exactly what Chicham is best at! Having lived in the United States, and as a Tour Leader for Shuar Amazon Tours he speaks, Spanish, English and Shuar!
Awakchatai Junior Chiriap DIRECTOR EJECUTIVO
Awakchatai Junior Chiriap DIRECTOR EJECUTIVO
Awakchatai Junior Chiriap DIRECTOR EJECUTIVO
Project Partners
Martina Paloheimo- Canadian Researcher & Project Coordinator
I am Martina Paloheimo, a PhD Student in the Human, Environment and Communities Lab in the Department of Geography at Queen's University. After completing my Masters in International Peace Studies in 2012, I have worked as a mediator, international consultant, and peacebuilder up until starting my PhD in 2019. I have experience in the not-for-profit sector, around Indigenous rights, and restorative justice. My research is focused on preserving traditional knowledge and territory with the Shuar in the Ecuadorian Amazon where I am doing collaborative community-based work. I am based in Toronto, where I live with my Partner and our dog Blue. I am back and forth to Ecuador while I finish up our PhD research.
Project Partners
Global Indigenous Development Trust
We support communities to negotiate, build, implement and sustain equitable partnerships with industry and green companies, to assist in their Nation Building vision and strategy. Through our global network of innovative, biomimetic and sustainable enterprises, we connect communities with new opportunities for high-value businesses that support their own values and principles. We then provide the training, mentorship and coaching for leaders and teams to negotiate partners that enable their traditional knowledge, lands and resources to be respected and protected for healthy and prosperous economic development of their Nations. Lastly, we support in the implementation and long-term viability of such partnerships or the eventual transition to full ownership by the Nation of the business.
Project Partners
LUSH FRESH HANDMADE COSMETICS
Supporting small, grassroots organizations working in the areas of human rights, animal protection and environmental justice.
Project Partners
International Development Research Centre
As part of Canada’s foreign affairs and development efforts, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) champions and funds research and innovation within and alongside developing regions to drive global change. We invest in high-quality research in developing countries, share knowledge with researchers and policymakers for greater uptake and use, and mobilize our global alliances to build a more sustainable and inclusive world.
