Alexandra Narváez Umenda

Alexandra Narváez Umenda is an indigenous woman human rights and environmental defender, and a member of the Kuirasunde’khu Indigenous Guard of the A’i Cofán community of Sinangoe, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Born in 1990 in her ancestral territory, she grew up learning the spiritual and cultural value of the forest, the importance of her language, and the knowledge systems that sustain her people’s way of life. From a young age, she understood that defending the territory means defending life itself, a conviction that led her to join the Indigenous Guard as a way to strengthen the voice and presence of Cofán women in territorial defence.

Since 2017, Alexandra Narváez Umenda has worked to protect A’i Cofán territory, promoting collective processes to recover traditional ways of life and ancestral knowledge. In 2018, she was one of the visible leaders in the struggle against mining concessions granted without prior consultation in her territory. Her defence of collective and environmental rights has exposed her to risks and accusations: together with the Indigenous Guard, she has been the target of defamation and criminalisation by state authorities who have sought to label them as “terrorist” or “subversive” groups. Despite this, Alexandra reaffirms her commitment to human rights defence through the protection of the forest, caring for the territory as an act of love and responsibility towards life.

In 2019, she was the president of the Asociación de Mujeres SHAMECCO (SHAMECCO Women’s Association), where she promoted women’s leadership in the recovery of ancestral knowledge through handicrafts, traditional medicine, and community-based tourism. Her work has contributed to strengthening the cultural and economic autonomy of Cofán women, while also reinforcing their own systems of governance and organisation. In recognition of her trajectory, she received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2022 and was named Woman of the Year in Ecuador, distinctions that highlight her courage and commitment to defending territory and the rights of nature.

In 2023, she joined the multi-ethnic “Punta de Lanza” team, composed of Indigenous people and human rights defenders whose aim is to support efforts to strengthen the Community Indigenous Guard in the territories of the Siekopai, A’i Cofán, Siona and Kichwa de Pastaza peoples, amongst others. This process took place through the coordination of regional and national indigenous structures, with the support of human rights organisations. Through collective work, this space for learning and support has enabled Alexandra to share her experience and consolidate networks of resistance among different indigenous peoples and nationalities in Ecuador.

In March 2026, she received the “Dolores Cacuango” distinction from Universidad UTE, an award recognising women who have made outstanding contributions to equity and social justice.

Alexandra Narváez Umenda has been repeatedly and publicly targeted in stigmatising ways in the media and on social networks in Ecuador, portrayed as an alleged instigator of violent and/or terrorist actions through Indigenous Guards. The targeting, stigmatisation, and criminalisation of Community Indigenous Guards and the Indigenous Movement more broadly have increased, placing members and leaders of communities, peoples, and nationalities—as well as human rights defenders who support these processes of self-determination—at greater risk.

Currently, Alexandra Narváez Umenda continues her work with the Kuirasunde’khu Guard alongside her daughters, with whom she promotes the Semillero de Guardia Chipiri Tsampi Kuirasunde’khu -Pequeños defensores de la selva- (Chipiri Tsampi Kuirasunde’khu Guard Seedbed -Little Defenders of the Forest-), fostering community-based education, the revitalisation of the A’ingae language, and the transmission of ancestral memory to new generations. Through this work, she reaffirms that the defence of territory is sustained not only through resistance, but also through the cultivation of awareness, identity, and life among the children of her community.