They Were Here First: Law Students Travel to the Amazon To Explore Indigenous Rights

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To facilitate the fieldwork aspect of the course, the project collaborated with leaders of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku, who call the Ecuadorian Amazon home.

“The Sarayaku community has long been at the forefront of defending their lands and heritage,” Sánchez said. In 2012, they won a groundbreaking legal victory at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the Ecuadorian government, protecting their land from unauthorized oil exploration.

“Beyond legal battles, the Sarayaku continue their struggle to maintain autonomy amid the encroachment of extractive industries and the rapid acceleration of Amazon deforestation,” he said.

The group’s first stop was the capital city of Quito, where they held meetings with academics and human rights defenders, learning how local advocates work to protect both human rights and the rights of nature.

The group then descended the slopes of the Andes to the city of Puyo for a day, hearing about local issues from Amazonian women in the Huaorani, Kichwa and Sapara Indigenous nations.

“Throughout the trip, there was a paradox of feeling both very surrounded by community and very far from the ‘Western civilization’ we know,” Fernandez said. “At periodic points, I would remember that I was in the middle of the jungle and, if left to my own devices, would not be able to make it back to Puyo.”

The next day, students traveled by truck and then motorized canoes in the Bobonaza River to reach Sarayaku. For the next four days, they lived alongside the Sarayaku community, “striving to ensure (our) presence was as unobtrusive as possible,” Sánchez said.

They participated in sacred “guayusa” tea ceremonies each morning beginning at 4 a.m., as well as various community activities such as a general assembly of the Sarayaku people, a work session on building a school and a collective fishing event.

“The Sarayaku people explained that the guayusa tea ceremonies are important for education since oral histories are told during that time and plans for ‘la lucha’ (in English, ‘the fight’) to protect their rights and community are discussed,” Ana Hallman, another second-year law student said. “I really appreciated having this time to learn more about the challenges they are facing, as well as the accomplishments they’ve won.”

One of the community’s most significant contributions to environmental protection is their Kawsak Sacha (meaning “living forest”) initiative, which aims to sustainably preserve and conserve territorial space, along with the material and spiritual relationships that native peoples establish with the forest and its inhabitants, Sánchez explained.

“It reflects their worldview – recognizing Kawsak Sacha as a conscious, living entity and a subject of rights. This concept prompted us to reflect quite a bit and is worth exploring further in the context of global activism against the climate crisis,” he said.

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