The A'i Cofán community of Dureno is located on the Aguarico River in the province of Sucumbios in the northeastern part of the Ecuadorian Amazon. For thousands of years, the A'i Cofán people have tended this territory, living in balance with their environment. During the last several decades this region has suffered oil exploitation and currently faces a threat from the State oil company, Petroecuador, a situation that is generating an internal division among community members.
A diario, las vidas y los medios de vida de pueblos Indígenas corren peligro en Abya Yala, donde los sistemas coloniales siguen oprimiendo los derechos y su lucha por tener una vida digna y respetada. Cultural Survival es una organización que apoya la autodeterminación y derechos de los pueblos y comunidades Indígenas desde 1972.
Por Olga Tene Cayambe (Puruwa)
By Olga Tene Cayambe (Puruwa)
Indigenous Community Media Fund Grant Partner Spotlight
Sinangoe is a small community formed by up to 200 A’l Cofan people, who live in the north of the Ecuadorian Amazon. In 2017, Asentamiento Ancentral Cofan de Sinangoe (The Ancestral Township of Cofan in Sinangoe) decided to form the Community Guards, a group dedicated to monitoring 50,000 hectares of their ancestral territory and identifying outsiders mining gold, deforesting, killing animals, and poisoning rivers.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
