Patricia Gualinga

Patricia Gualinga (or Patricia Gualinga Montalvo)

Patricia's nieces Nina Gualinga and Helena Gualinga are also environmental and indigenous rights activists. Her mother Cristina Gualinga is also a land defender, who passed down the family tradition. Her sister Noemí Gualinga, who has a lower profile as an activist, is a community leader, while her brother Eriberto Gualinga is a globetrotting filmmaker who documents the Sarayaku resistance.

Gualinga currently lives in cantón del Puyo, in the Pastaza Province of Ecuador.

She has played an important role in the fight for indigenous rights. Gualinga is a spokeswoman for many environmental projects.

She led the women's group of the Pueblo Kichwa de Sarayaku (Kichwa People of Sarayaku) for six years. She worked to strengthen the organisation of women in the community; organised workshops and childcare for women attending the workshops to learn how to speak for the community, respond to media and respond to the arguments of industries and governments. The Ecuadorian government authorized oil exploration by Argentinian oil company Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC), also known as the Argentinean General Fuel Company, on territory held by the Sarayaku, exploration which the community resisted through local protests and a court case. The community won this case, The appropriation of community land for extractive industries without free, prior, and informed consent was found to have been illegal.

She is a spokesperson for the indigenous-led proposal 'Kawsak Sacha', or 'Living Forest', which calls for legal protection of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Having successfully defended Sarayaku lands in the 2012 case, Gualinga currently works to protect the Kichwa People of Sarayaku and their lands from human rights violations resulting from similar oil extraction projects by Chinese companies.

Death threats Gualinga was the victim of a home invasion 116 environmental defenders having been killed in the region in 2017, according to a Global Witness report.