World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Ecuador : Shuar
| Publisher | Minority Rights Group International |
| Publication Date | 2008 |
| Cite as | Minority Rights Group International, World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Ecuador : Shuar, 2008, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/49749d2cc.html [accessed 20 May 2013] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Profile
The Shuar belong to the Jivaroan ethno-linguistic group and live in the upper Amazonian region of Ecuador as well as in Peru.
Historical context
The Shuar Federation was one of the earliest indigenous resistance organizations in Ecuador, and one whose substantial achievements have made it a model for other groups. The federation was founded in 1964 to defend indigenous communities from the 1964 agrarian reforms that actually promoted the colonization of the Amazonian region. Their education programme has enabled Shuar to reassert themselves and take pride in their cultural inheritance. Strategic adaptation to changing realities gives them an improved chance of long-term survival as a people and their initiative may be followed by other groups.
Current issues
The Shuar are highly mobilized and communicate through Shuar Radio, a station dating back to the early 1990s. They have been active in political struggles or water-use and in 2004, the Shuar were one of the four indigenous groups to bring a lawsuit against the oil company Texaco for reparations resulting from their destruction of ancestral lands.
