Noemí Gualinga (born 1967 or 1968 (age 56–57)),[1] 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[2] numbering roughly 1,200.
The company entered Sarayaku land in 2002 with the aid of Ecuadorian military and allegedly committed human rights abuses, such as threats of rape.
[1] 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).
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.
[2] 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.