Indigenous Latin American Women Craft Climate Change Solutions in Marrakech

A year ago, Indigenous women from across Latin America began collecting local stories about how climate change is affecting their daily lives. They did this in order to craft solutions that aligned with their values.

Across their territories, this network of women is known as Chaski Warmi, meaning women messengers in Kichwa, a native language of the Andean region. Staying true to their name, these Aboriginal women, ranging from Guatemala to Chile, from Bolivia to Colombia and Ecuador, have brought their voices this month to the United Nations climate change negotiations in Marrakech. Together, they are proposing what they describe as an alternative development model. They say it would exert Indigenous rights and environmental justice as opposed to what they call “extractivism” or unsustainable development of resources.

As Indigenous women struggle on the frontlines of resource extraction and climate change, Ivonne Ramos – organiser with Chaski Warmi and coordinator of the Ecuadorian environmental organisation, Acción Ecológica – said that Chaski Warmi is part of the movement for justice, both human and environmental.

Here are some of their stories:

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