Helena Gualinga

Helena Gualinga was born on February 27, 2002, in the Indigenous Kichwa Sarayaku community located in Pastaza, Ecuador. Her mother, Noemí Gualinga is an Indigenous Ecuadorian former president of the Kichwa Women's Association. Her older sister is the activist Nina Gualinga. Her aunt Patricia Gualinga{{Cite news |last=Castro |first=Mayuri |date=2020-12-13 |title='She goes and helps': Noemí Gualinga, Ecuador's mother of the jungle |language=en-US |work=Mongabay |url=https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/she-goes-and-helps-noemi-gualinga-ecuadors-mother-of-the-jungle/ |url-status=live |access-date=2021-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126035459/https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/she-goes-and-helps-noemi-gualinga-ecuadors-mother-of-the-jungle/ |archive-date=2021-01-26}} and her grandmother Cristina Gualinga are defenders of Indigenous women's human rights in the Amazon and environmental causes.{{Cite book |last=Carlos Fresneda |first=Puerto |title=Ecohéroes: 100 voces por la salud del planeta |publisher=RBA Libros |year=2020 |isbn=9788491877172 |quote=En la Amazonia, las guardianas de la Pachamama (Madre Tierra) han sido secularmente las mujeres. Nina Gualinga (nacida en 1994) es la heredera de una largea tradición que viene de su abuela Cristina, de su madre Noemí y de su tía Patricia, amenazada de muerte por defender su tierra frente al hostigamiento de las grandes corporaciones petroleras, mineras or madereras.}} Her father is Anders Sirén, a Swedish-speaking Finnish{{cite web |url=https://abounderrattelser.fi/reporterklassen-klimataktivisten-helena-siren-gualinga-har-manga-jarn-i-elden/ |title=Reporterklassen: Klimataktivisten Helena Sirén Gualinga har många järn i elden |last=Suominen |first=Annina |date=5 March 2020 |website=Åbo Underrättelser |language=sv |access-date=10 November 2021 |quote=pappa är finlandssvensk |archive-date=10 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110162435/https://abounderrattelser.fi/reporterklassen-klimataktivisten-helena-siren-gualinga-har-manga-jarn-i-elden/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.kansanuutiset.fi/artikkeli/4244479-suomalaisaktivisti-maailmalla-helena-siren-gualinga-puolustaa-alkuperaiskansojen-oikeuksia |title=Suomalaisaktivisti maailmalla – Helena Sirén Gualinga puolustaa alkuperäiskansojen oikeuksia |last=Ahokas |first=Kukka-Maria |date=10 April 2020 |website=Kansan Uutiset |language=fi |access-date=10 November 2021 |quote=isänsä puolelta suomenruotsalainen |archive-date=10 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110162435/https://www.kansanuutiset.fi/artikkeli/4244479-suomalaisaktivisti-maailmalla-helena-siren-gualinga-puolustaa-alkuperaiskansojen-oikeuksia |url-status=live }} professor of biology in the department of geography and geology at the University of Turku.{{Cite news |date=13 December 2019 |title=Helena Gualinga: Who is the young voice against climate change? |language=en-US |work=Ecuador Times |url=https://www.ecuadortimes.net/helena-gualinga-who-is-the-young-voice-against-climate-change/ |url-status=live |access-date=2021-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115211755/https://www.ecuadortimes.net/helena-gualinga-who-is-the-young-voice-against-climate-change/ |archive-date=15 January 2021}}

Gualinga was born in Sarayaku territory in Pastaza, Ecuador. She spent most of her teenage years living in Pargas and later in Turku, Finland where her father comes from. She attends secondary school at the Cathedral School of Åbo.{{Cite news |last=Koutonen |first=Jouni |date=11 October 2019 |title=Helena Sirén Gualinga, 17, taistelee ilmastonmuutosta vastaan Greta Thunbergin taustalla: "Tämä ei ollut valinta, synnyin tämän keskelle" |url=https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11014920 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191106130041/https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11014920 |archive-date=6 November 2019 |access-date=2019-12-12 |website=Yle Uutiset |language=fi}}

From a young age, Gualinga has witnessed the persecution of her family for standing against the interests of big oil companies and their environmental impact on Indigenous land. Several leaders members of her community have lost their life in violent conflicts against the government and corporations. She has stated for Yle that she sees her involuntary upbringing in such an agitated environment as an opportunity.

Gualinga has become a spokesperson for the Sarayaku Indigenous community. Her activism includes exposing the conflict between her community and oil companies by carrying an empowering message among the youth in local schools in Ecuador. She also actively exposes this message to the international community hoping to reach policy-makers.

File:Sugarcane Deforestation, Bolivia, 2016-06-15 by Planet Labs.jpg, 2016]]

She and her family describe numerous ways in which they, as members of Indigenous communities in the Amazon, have experienced climate change, including a higher prevalence of forest fires, desertification, direct destruction and disease spread by floods, and faster melting snow on mountain peaks. These effects, she says, have been noticeable firsthand in the lifetimes of community elders. Gualinga describes that those elders have become aware of climate change regardless of their lack of scientific background.

Gualinga held a sign that read "sangre indígena, ni una sola gota más" (Indigenous blood, not one more drop) outside of the UN headquarters in New York City at a demonstration with hundreds other of young environmental activists during the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit.{{Cite web |date=11 December 2019 |title=La adolescente Helena Gualinga, activista del pueblo Sarayaku, arremetió contra el Gobierno de Ecuador en la COP25 de Madrid |url=https://www.elcomercio.com/tendencias/helena-gualinga-sarayaku-ecuador-cop25.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212103032/https://www.elcomercio.com/tendencias/helena-gualinga-sarayaku-ecuador-cop25.html |archive-date=12 December 2019 |access-date=2019-12-12 |website=El Comercio}}

Helena Gualinga participated in the COP25 in Madrid, Spain. She spoke about her concern on the Ecuadorian government authorizing oil extraction in Indigenous land. She said: "Our country's government is still granting our territories to the corporations responsible of climate change. This is criminal." She criticized the Ecuadorian government for claiming interest in protecting the Amazon during the conference instead of attending Indigenous Amazon women's demands brought to the government during the 2019 Ecuadorian protests. She also expressed her disappointment towards world leaders' lack of interest to discuss topics brought by Indigenous peoples to the conference.

Gualinga founded Polluters Out with Isabella Fallahi and Ayisha Siddiqa which aimed at fossil fuel industries.{{Cite web |last=Chan |first=Emily |date=2020-04-21 |title=Climate Activists Are Holding Virtual Protests Now, Here's How You Can Join Them |url=https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/climate-activists-virtual-protests |access-date=2022-04-20 |website=British Vogue |language=en-GB}} The movement was founded as a response to the failing of COP25.{{Cite web |last=Foggin |first=Sophie |date=2020-01-31 |title=Helena Gualinga is a voice for indigenous communities in the fight against climate change |url=https://latinamericareports.com/helena-gualinga-voice-indigenous-communities-fight-climate-change/4192/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311153820/https://latinamericareports.com/helena-gualinga-voice-indigenous-communities-fight-climate-change/4192/ |archive-date=2021-03-11 |access-date=2020-05-06 |website=Latin America Reports |language=en-US}} The movement's petition is to: "Demand that Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), refuse funding from fossil fuel corporations for COP26!".{{Cite web|title=Our Petition|url=https://pollutersout.org/our-petition|website=Polluters Out|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-06|archive-date=4 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504153240/https://pollutersout.org/our-petition|url-status=usurped}}

Helena Gualinga is the protagonist of the documentary "Helena Sarayaku Manta" (Helena of Sarayaku), which documents her life and activism related to teaching the Sarayaku ways of living. The film was directed by Eriberto Gualinga and premiered on March 18, 2022 at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital.{{Cite web |date= |title=Helena Sarayaku Manta (Helena of Sarayaku) |url=https://dceff30.eventive.org/films/helena-sarayaku-manta-helena-of-sarayaku-6202e2a29f380800a48366fb |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220409063601/https://dceff30.eventive.org/films/helena-sarayaku-manta-helena-of-sarayaku-6202e2a29f380800a48366fb |archive-date=2022-04-09 |access-date=April 1, 2022 |website=The 30th Anniversary Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital}}

On April 4, 2022, Helena Gualinga and her sister Nina Gualinga were featured in Revista Hogar magazine.{{Cite web |title=La Amazonía tiene voz de mujer: Nina y Helena Gualinga |url=https://www.vistazo.com/hogar/la-amazonia-tiene-voz-de-mujer-nina-y-helena-gualinga-MD1544187 |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=www.vistazo.com |language=es-EC}} Their photographs were on the cover of the 691st issue of the magazine and according to Helena's social media, it was the first time ever that indigenous women were on the magazine's cover.

On April 22, 2022, Helena Gualinga was pictured in Vogue magazine in an article on traditional Kichwa Sarayaku face paintings written by Atenea Morales de la Cruz.{{Cite web |date=2022-04-22 |title=In the Ecuadorian Amazon, Wituk Face-Painting Is an Act of Resistance |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/kichwa-women-sarayaku-amazon-wituk-face-painting |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=Vogue |language=en-US}}

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• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20200306031147/https://pollutersout.org/ Polluters Out]}},{{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20210331180550/https://pollutersout.org/ |date=31 March 2021 }}

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Category:2002 births

Category:Living people

Category:Ecuadorian women activists

Category:Ecuadorian people of Finnish descent

Category:Expatriates in Finland

Category:Women environmentalists

Category:Ecuadorian environmentalists

Category:People from Pastaza Province

Category:21st-century Ecuadorian women

Category:21st-century Ecuadorian people

Category:Ecuadorian people of Quechua descent

Category:Indigenous Ecuadorian activists

Category:21st-century indigenous women of the Americas

Category:Indigenous peoples of South America and the environment

Category:Youth climate activists