About Us

Siekoya Remolino is a community of 53 families living on the banks of the Aguarico River in the northeastern Ecuadorian Amazon region. We belong to the Siekopai nationality (which means “multicoloured people”), also known as the Secoya. We live in a traditional way, by hunting, fishing, and growing crops in our chakras.

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The Siekopai are renowned for our shamanic acumen and knowledge of medicinal plants, with uses for over 1,000 different plants. The plant medicines yokó (a drink made from a vine), yajé (ayahuasca) and manapë (a purgative) are especially important to us and have enabled our culture to survive over the millennia. Our most sacred tree is the ceibo, as we believe it is home to the spirits of the jungle.

According to the Siekopai origin story, the god Ñañëpaina came down from the sky to find our people living underground and liberated us to live on the earth. Our language is called Paai koka. We wear crowns and arm bands made of leaves and flowers and paint our bodies and faces with geometric designs. We also make excellent hot sauce from jungle peppers!

We depend on the Amazon rainforest for survival and its destruction puts our people at risk of extinction.

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Of the five Siekopai communities in Ecuador, only Siekoya Remolino has refused to allow oil companies and the palm oil industry to enter our territory. Despite enormous pressure to cut down our jungle to plant African palm and allow oil exploitation within our territory, our community continues to peacefully defend our 17,000 hectares of jungle. In fact, it is only the resistance of our community that prevents the state oil company from building a highway to exploit the Amazon all the way to the border with Peru.