Location & Map - Where We Are

Contact Us

Community Assembly

Introduction

The Coordinator of the Kichwa Communities of the Amazon, CORCKA, was founded on August 12th, 2002 in the community of Kawsak Llakta (tributaries of the Napo River). Its mission is to protect, preserve and recover Indigenous Peoples' lands and territories. Likewise, it seeks to strengthen Kichwa communities' alternatives for sustainable development, through programs that self-empower, train and rely on legal tools to vindicate the human rights and fundamental liberties of Indigenous Peoples.

CORCKA works in the central region of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and has generated great hope in the majority of communities, as their deepest desire is to recover their ancestral lands and territories. For now, the limited resources of this organization has not allowed it to amplify its scope of action. Nevertheless, CORCKA is currently working on an action plan for international cooperation and, in the near future, shall provide many more communities with the support they need as they labor to recuperate their ancestral lands.

Community Decisions.

The action plans and programs to be carried out by the Govermenment Council are strictly based on the full, active and effective participation of the communities. Consequently, decision making power does not lie within the Goverment Council itself, but rather with the community representatives during the General Assemblies that are held each year.

Under these circumstances on September 15th, 2003 the General Assembly of CORCKA Communities decided to work with volunteers from around the globe to create the SACHA MAMA ALLPA Volunteer Program. This program hosts cultural exchanges between visitors from various countries, who apply their knowledge to various sustainable projects within the Kichwa communities of the Amazon region in Ecuador.

For more information on the volunteer program and the different opportunities available, see the links to the Sacha Mama Allpa Volunteers program, Asociación de Artesanias Típicas de la Amazonía ASATA, RUNA MUSKUY Turismo Comunitario, others projects.

RUNA MUSKUY—Community Tourism

Majestic Napo river

The Kichwa Communites of the central Amazon, who are associated with the Coordinator of the Kichwa Communites of the Amazon, CORKCA, promote sustainable projects for our communities. The sustainable tourism program is an option that combines conservation with the opportunity for visitors, whether foreign or Ecuadorian, to exchange cultural experiences with our people, all within the ancestral territories of our Kichwa Communities. The program’s main goal is to preserve natural resources and our ancestral territories for future generations. It also seeks to teach the care of and respect for our great diversity, our Sacha Mama Allpa, for the collective benefit of our Peoples.

Visits to our communities are strictly regulated and monitored through a process that selects and limits the number of visitors and visits in proportion with the population of each community.

Therefore Corcka and its communities are able to assure that each visitor has a pleasant stay and experience with our Kichwa culture and in our ancestral Territories.

In order to love the unknown, we must come to know it. In order to understand that our planet is multilingual and multicultural, we must have intercultural experiences..!

The Shiwa Yacu Community Fights for its ancestral territories 27-9-2005

Recuperation and Protection of Indigenous Communities.

"In the Ecuadorian Amazon during the 60’s and 70’s the colonization process and the government-backed Agrarian Reform Act caused the large majority of Indigenous communities to lose all of their traditional territories, imposing Western values upon them. Traditional forms of governance were substituted by a new legal system, which awarded our territories to colonists who arrived during that time period. Our cultural practices, sacred rituals, ceremonies and beliefs were brutally repressed; many died defending our Peoples. History and the Western conquest destroyed entire cultures and Peoples, but we continue to fight for our rights and territories"(Gabriel Cerda Grefa - President of the Shiwa Yacu Kichwa community).

more

Woman of ASATA

Association for Typical Amazonian Craftsmanship of, ASATA

CORCKA’s Kichwa communities, as they build their plans for the future, have established several sustainable development projects aimed at benefiting our Peoples who are marginalized and underserved by local and national governments.

Under these circumstances CORKA and its communities have undertaken initiatives and projects like the Association for Typical Amazonian Craftsmanship (ASATA) in order to fulfill their potential through community businesses. These are designed to benefit the total population of the Indigenous Kichwa Communities.

more

GOVERNING COUNCIL