jaguar dreams: indigenous cosmovision and the defense of life in the amazon

This article reflects on an outsider’s encounter with Indigenous Amazonian worldviews and explores how intercultural engagement can deepen understanding of environmental justice and territorial defense. Drawing from eight years living in Ecuador and direct involvement with an environmental NGO supporting Indigenous and rural communities in the Amazon Basin, the author examines experiences of learning from Kichwa communities and witnessing their approaches to stewardship, collective planning, and sustainable futures. The report situates these experiences within the broader context of contemporary threats faced by Indigenous nations in Ecuador, particularly the expansion of extractive industries such as oil drilling and mineral mining. It highlights how Indigenous resistance movements have mobilized legal, political, and spiritual strategies to defend their territories and uphold constitutional protections for the rights of nature, despite limited international visibility. The study also introduces the author’s literary project, a trilogy of novels inspired by extensive field experience and research into Amazonian Indigenous realities. Special attention is given to Jaguar Dreams, which follows a multi-generational Kichwa family confronting the arrival of oil extraction in their ancestral territory and seeking guidance through the spiritual dimensions of forest life. The sequel, Flying River, expands this narrative into legal and ecological struggles involving Indigenous communities, nonprofit allies, and transnational corporations. By combining memoir, cultural reflection, environmental advocacy, and fiction, the article seeks to broaden English-speaking audiences’ understanding of Amazonian Indigenous cultures and their contributions to imagining more sustainable and relational futures.