nemonte nenquimo
Born 1986 (34 years old)
“They don’t see us. They see what they want to see. They see oil wells where we see gardens. They see money where we see life.”
Nemonte Nenquimo grew up in part of the Ecuadorian Amazon that was untouched by industrialization. She remembers walking nearly twenty hours as a child with her father to visit aunts who lived near an oil well. She was shocked by the noise, the pollution, and the negative impact it had on the people who lived there.
Nemonte is now president of the Waorani indigenous group. She’s the first woman to fill this role, though she says that women have always been the decision makers among her people. She’s also the only indigenous woman on the Time 100 list for this year, as well as BBC’s 100 Women of 2020. And she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize this year.
Why all the hubbub from the rainforest all of a sudden? Well…it’s because Ecuador’s government decided to up and list her people’s land for sale, looking to profit from the line of oily assholes just dying to get their drills in it. Nay, said Nemonte, and she took the government to court. She showed up to the hearing WITH A FLIPPING SPEAR which is I swear to god the most badass thing I have ever heard in my entire life, except that no it isn’t because this is: she won.
This woman stood up to big bad oil WITH HER SPEAR and not only saved half a million acres of Amazon rainforest. Damn.
Thank you, Nemonte Nenquimo.