Creating an Intercultural Indigenous Zone at Puyo, Ecuador

In Ecuador, many Indigenous groups live in squatter settlements around the urban areas, traveling between their communal land and nearby cities in order to work, to find health services, or to obtain a formal education. I undertook an exploratory study to inquire how Amazonian Indigenous people from Puyo, Ecuador would create an Intercultural Indigenous City on a contested tract of land. People have already begun living at the project site and houses continue being built. Indigenous leaders are promoting this project, and continue looking for support and technical assistance to achieve their vision. The Ecuadorian government is still analyzing the future of this project and the current legal issues with this land. Around 4,000 indigenous people would be impacted by this envisioned intercultural city. In order to better understand Indigenous planning, I interviewed the leaders and several members of the project asking how they would imagine an Indigenous city. Additionally, I applied community participatory activities with the members, asking them what services would be needed in the city, how they would want their houses to be built, and why they would live in that area. From these interviews, the leaders identified their project as an ideal model of the Good Living National Plan of the Ecuadorian government. Additionally, community members imagined their houses with a mix of modern and cultural elements. Furthermore, community members believe that the envisioned project could provide them with income, preservation of their culture, and access to education by becoming a recognized settlement of pluri-national Indigenous citizens. The poster will show a map of the project, explain the method and the participatory activities with community members, and present an analysis of their responses