Siekopai Women Fight to Protect Amazon from Oil Industry

Women behind the lens: ‘The women watched the fuel tanker advance with uncertainty and fear’

On the Ecuador-Peru border the Siekopai people fight to protect the Amazon from the oil industry and other threats – and women are at the forefront of the resistance In June 2025, I accompanied a group of Siekopai women along the Aguarico River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Mothers, daughters, cousins and granddaughters had reunited to participate in the Binational Ceramics Gathering in Siekoya Remolino, a community that has remained free from oil extraction, mining and African palm monocultures....

By Johanna Alarcón