Listen to the voices of the Amazon Rainforest, ft. Nemonte Nenquimo
How do we expand what we view as "modern" or "futuristic"?
In celebration of Earth Day, I'm honored to bring you my latest conversation with Nemonte Nenquimo, a Waorani leader of the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest who led her community to a historic, precedent-setting victory a few years ago — protecting half a million acres of rainforest from oil drilling.
But I share this conversation now with a deeper urgency. Right now, the Ecuadorian government is looking to auction off 8.7 million acres of the Amazon rainforest to oil companies. My mind can't even grasp a million acres, let alone eight million acres of primary rainforests teeming with life at every level!
Drawing on the questions I explored with Maasai human rights lawyer Joseph Oleshangay, I now ask: Why is it that the Indigenous communities of the Amazon have to learn their nation states’ legal systems in order to defend their basic, ancestral rights to life, while their nation-states’ representatives and commercial interests never had to learn their “laws of the land” — the songs, stories, and species entangled within their forests — in order to engage with them?
There is so much to question!
Ever so keen to unravel the implicit meanings embedded in our everyday language, I was particularly keen on challenging our dominant ideas of “modern” in my discussion with Nemonte.
The word “modern” is often associated with subjective imagery relating to urbanized life, various technologies and transport systems, computers, digitization, and automation, and all things related to extractive, capital-driven consumerism.
But to go back to the basics, “modern” simply refers to things related to this current time.
So why should “modern” hold a sort of monocultural meaning? Who got to decide what is considered relevant or irrelevant and outdated to these times?
And why do so many of us reinforce these non-universal ideals and realities, day-in and day-out, without uprooting the entrenched value judgments that they uphold?
What ought to be considered “outdated” to these vital times is what no longer serves us: That which destroys. That which is genocidal, eco-cidal, and self-destructive. That which is individualizing, deluding, and disconnecting. That which is corrosive to community. That which is transactional, extractive, and exploitative.
There is not a more urgent time to expand on and recenter what we conceptualize as “modern” — to all things that are also very much alive in this modern day, that are much more relevant to our abilities to regenerate more life-affirming futures...
What is the “futuristic” that your cellular being is yearning for? And what aligning forms of “modern” must then be reclaimed and nurtured?
Invoking these curiosities during my conversation with Nemonte, I asked her:
“What is your community’s 'modern’? What is your 'advancement’? And what is your 'futuristic’?”
“The world must learn to respect and listen to our cosmo-vision, rather than imposing its ways and destroying us, especially our culture and our language.
We reject the ignorance that dismisses our knowledge as unimportant. We do not accept that.” —Nemonte Nenquimo via Green Dreamer EP448.
This Earth Week, may we stop defaulting “modern” (relevant to this time), “advancement” (an improvement on something), and “futuristic” (related to the future) to some monocultural meaning — erasing and precluding the many other moderns and pathways forward that are vital to our shared planetary future.
May we honor the plurality of moderns that are thriving in good relation to land and place.
May we uplift the plurality of moderns actively resisting forces of extraction and exploitation that must be rendered irrelevant.
And may we dream up more imaginative futuristics that affirm care, joy, relationships, community, all currencies of life, and our entanglement with the more-than-human world.
This Earth Week, I invite you to dive deeper into Nemonte’s powerful story as a Waorani leader who has firsthand experienced the impacts of oil development — and defended her ancestral lands victoriously against oil drilling. Join us in this special feature interview (Green Dreamer EP448) with translation support from Amazon Frontlines and voiceover by my past guest and Quechua actress Nathalie Kelley.
Tap in to this conversation here or via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any podcast app, and view our transcript and episode resources here.
To tune in to the untranslated version of our conversation, in which I presented my questions in English and Nemonte provided responses in Spanish, click here.
“The outside world only seems to notice when there is a massive hurricane, a devastating flood, or a landslide. That’s when they say, ‘Oh, climate change is affecting us!’
But for Indigenous peoples, we don’t need to wait for something catastrophic. Even the smallest sign tells us that something is shifting.” —Nemonte Nenquimo
About Nemonte Nenquimo
Nemonte Nenquimo, a Waorani leader, was born in Ecuador’s Amazon, one of the most bio-diverse and threatened rainforests on the planet. She is the co-founder of both the Indigenous-led nonprofit Ceibo Alliance and its partner organization, Amazon Frontlines. Nemonte led her people in an historic legal victory, protecting half a million acres of rainforest from oil and setting a precedent for Indigenous rights across the region.
She is the co-author of her acclaimed memoir We Will Be Jaguars (US) / We Will Not Be Saved (UK), written with her husband and Amazon Frontlines co-founder Mitch Anderson, and published by Abrams in the USA and Wildfire in the UK.
Invitations into reflection & action:
What is the “futuristic” that your cellular being is yearning for? And what aligning forms of “modern” would you like to water and nurture?
To learn more about how you can support Amazon Frontlines and their current campaign to defend the Ecuadorian Amazon from oil drilling, see here.
Coming soon…
My next interview with Nemonte’s partner, co-author, and co-founder of Amazon Frontlines, Mitch Anderson, takes us deeper into how the Amazon communities achieved their historic legal victory years ago — and how they are strategically building coalitions to empower their ongoing resistance.
What does it mean to get involved in the actual practice of building solidarity to protect our shared lands, waters, and living communities? How do we begin right where we are?
Stay tuned.
If you value my writing and interviews, please join as a supporting Substack subscriber today (or make a one-time donation of any amount here)!
I’ve just had a significant local grant opportunity that was in the middle of being processed withdrawn due to budget cuts from this administration, so I’m feeling even greater urgency to ensure my media work is sustainably and directly supported by my readers and listeners.
Thank you so much for your support! x
This is really good, such an important way to turn things around from how many of us were taught to think. Thank you for writing - I'll be thinking about this.