Noemí Gualinga

Noemí Gualinga (born 1967 or 1968), known as "mother of the jungle", is a community leader of and activist for the Sarayaku, an Amazonian Kichwa indigenous group from the Ecuadorian Amazon numbering roughly 1,200.

Noemí is the sister of Patricia Gualinga, mother of Nina and Helena Gualinga, exploration rights to territory held by the Sarayaku without first consulting the local community. The company entered Sarayaku land in 2002 with the aid of Ecuadorian military and allegedly committed human rights abuses, such as threats of rape.

In response, the Sarayaku community, led by female leaders such as Gualinga, organized protests against the intrusions in 2003, and opened a legal case that was heard before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

2020 flooding and COVID-19 pandemic In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread among indigenous communities, the Bobonaza and Arajuno rivers flooded, heavily affecting the Sarayaku villages. During the quarantine period, from March to July, Noemí Gualinga organized daily missions to bring food relief from the city of Puyo to her home. She helped organize COVID-19 testing in Sarayaku.

Other activities Gualinga has led the Sarayaku Women’s Association, Kuriñampi (Golden Paths), since 2017. She coordinates the women's sales of jewelry and handicrafts. She is also a member of Mujeres Amazónicas, a collective for women defenders of natural rights.

Noemí appears rarely as a leader in photographs, but has taken part in protests such as those of March 2018 at the Carondelet Palace in Quito, where 60 women from 11 indigenous nationalities demanded an audience with President Lenin Moreno.

Gualinga continues to work as a community leader and provider of aid. In one instance, she helped a woman who had fled from her abusive husband, who had given their 12-year-old daughter to a man in a form of forced marriage long-running in indigenous communities.