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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.

In English

Por Rodrigo Medina

No soy como los demás gunadule; quiero decir, me parezco a los demás, como se describen en las crónicas españolas: nariz aguileña, espalda ancha, bajo de estatura, cabello negro y abundante, espíritu rebelde y con una insaciable necesidad por apoyar a mi pueblo. Pero no hablo dulegaya, crecí en la Ciudad de Panamá desde que soy consciente y hasta hace dos años no sabía que era gunadule.
 

The Tuklik Communication Project in the areas of radio and video production and broadcasting is being implemented in six communities,  in the municipalities of Mayapan, Cantamayec and Tahdziu in the southern and eastern regions of the Yucatan in Mexico. The three municipalities have a numerous Mayan population and a high degree of poverty and marginalization. 
 

Many A'uwẽ-Xavante ceremonies – such as wate’a (above), part of the male initiation complex -- revolve around water and ritual activities in water.  Plans for three hydroelectric dams on tributaries to the Rio das Mortes threaten the river basin. Photo by Rosa Gauditano/Studio R.
 

By Laura R. Graham, with collaboration from Edson Krenak Naknanuk
 

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