Indigenous women across the Amazon are coming together like never before to protect and defend our lives, rights, bodies, and territories in the face of ever-increasing threats. In September 2021, thousands of Indigenous women marched in Brazil to resist attacks by the Bolsonaro government on Indigenous peoples' rights.

In solidarity, a delegation of Mujeres Amazónicas, a collective of Indigenous women defenders working against extraction in the Ecuadorian Amazon, joined the historic gathering. Together, we marched, danced, sang, and shared stories and strategies of resistance. There, I met beautiful and inspiring women, including Mayalú Txucarramãe, a mother and rising woman leader of the Mebêngôkre and Wauja peoples.

A few months after meeting Mayalú, I had the opportunity to visit her and her family together with my friend Alice Aedy, a documentary photographer and filmmaker, and my sister Helena Gualinga.