Mari Luz Canaquiri (Kukama Indigenous People, Peru) grew up knowing that the Marañón River is sacred, because they carry life itself. When oil spills poisoned its waters and her people, her voice was dismissed because she was a woman. Refusing to be silenced, she joined other Kukama women to found the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana Federation, leading with a strength that is inclusive, resilient, and cannot be corrupted. Together, they won a landmark victory: the Marañón became the first river in Peru recognized as a subject of rights. In 2025, Mari Luz was honored with the Goldman Prize—the “Environmental Nobel”—for her fight to defend her river and her people.
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Mariluz Canaquiri: The underwater beings
Mari Luz Canaquiri is a Kukama leader and guardian of the Marañón River in the Peruvian Amazon. As the head of the Association of Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana Women, she played a central role in the campaign to grant the Marañon river legal personhood—a groundbreaking move in Peru aimed at protecting them from pollution and oil spills. In recognition of her tireless efforts to defend the river, in 2025 Mariluz was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, often called the Nobel Prize for the Environment.
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Mari Luz Canaquiri: The Underwater Beings [ENG]
Mari Luz Canaquiri (Kukama Indigenous People, Peru) grew up knowing that the Marañón River is sacred, because they carry life itself. When oil spills poisoned its waters and her people, her voice was dismissed because she was a woman. Refusing to be silenced, she joined other Kukama women to found the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana Federation, leading with a strength that is inclusive, resilient, and cannot be corrupted. Together, they won a landmark victory: the Marañón became the first river in Peru recognized as a subject of rights. In 2025, Mari Luz was honored with the Goldman Prize—the “Environmental Nobel”—for her fight to defend her river and her people.
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Bárbara Muelas: The Guardian of Language [ENG]
Bárbara Muelas (Misak Indigenous People, Colombia), the first Indigenous woman in the Colombian Academy of Language, has spent her 80 years reviving Namtrik, her mother tongue—one of 65 Indigenous languages that still survive in Colombia despite centuries of colonization. Once spoken only aloud, it is now etched in writing so it will not vanish. Born to terrajeros during a time in which colonizers forced the Misak nation to work in their own land, she saw her people reclaim their territory in the 1980s and knew that freedom also meant reclaiming their language. Mamá Bárbara translated the ethnic chapter of Colombia’s Constitution into Namtrik, believing each language holds a unique way of seeing the world—and that by learning them, we also come to know ourselves, and the threads that bind us all.
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Jacqueline Flores: The Plant Doctor [ENG]
Jacqueline Flores (Asháninka Indigenous People, Peru) thinks that being a plant doctor is not a title—it is an ancient science of direct encounter. One must take the plants, ingest them, allow them to move through the body, and speak. This is a knowledge revealed slowly, through dreams and disciplined diets, where the plants themselves become teachers.As a traditional healer of the Asháninka people—one of the Amazon’s most profound guardians of medicinal plant wisdom—Jacqueline embodies a way of healing rooted in time, reciprocity, and deep attention. She speaks critically of urban worlds that have severed their ties with nature, trading connection for chemical quick fixes that soothe but do not truly cure.True healing, she reminds us, is a slow unfolding. It asks us to relearn how to listen—to the plants, to the forest, to the more-than-human voices that have not stopped speaking.
In this podcast series, you will learn from multiple Indigenous leaders, who live on the front lines of the global climate crisis. Here they share their life experiences, knowledge, and urgent advice. They are the ones who are leading the path to a possible future.
It's time to listen to them, it's time to cross the river.
Crossing the River is a podcast from More Than Human Life (MOTH), based at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law and 070 Podcasts.
Österreich