In the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, indigenous women have become models of resilience and resistance. In their communities, it is they who are on the front line in the fight against the virus. They imagine alternatives, thanks to their ancestral knowledge and are a real laboratory of ideas for tomorrow.

The Indigenous Women’s Forum has just published a study on the subject for the Docip * :

• “the application of traditional isolation practices to prevent the transmission of the virus in the community, the prohibition of entry and exit of people and the closure of community borders, as has been observed in Bangladesh and other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In some cases, women have acted as gatekeepers at gates and barricades”.

In the face of health difficulties, women also resort to rituals and healing practices that only they are familiar with.

• “Like the Kankanaey Igorots of the Cordillera (Ubaya/Tenerw) in the Philippines and Karen in Thailand (Kroh Yee). Women from the Lakota Nation in the United States say they have resisted through prayer, cultural beliefs and times of fellowship within the community. Spiritual accompaniment from various organisations helped them to talk about their problems, restore their physical and mental balance and deal with the repercussions of the crisis”.
• “Many organisations report having “explored traditional indigenous medical treatments to find natural remedies for the prevention and treatment of coronavirus”, which in the case of Amazigh and Gbagyi women in Morocco, and other peoples in Asia, Africa, the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, derives from their relationship with territories, worldview, and the environment. They use different elements of plants, fire, water, salt, black soap, spices, bulbs, roots and bark for the sterilization, disinfection and purification of food and for rituals for the well-being of body and mind, including inhalations and fumigations for the purification of houses in an ecological and safe way”.

This is also what the women of the Kichwa community of Sarayaku, Ecuador, have done. In the absence of medicines, they used traditional indigenous medicine. Using their knowledge of nature, they looked for plants to combat Covid-19.

And there are many initiatives. Diana Mori, who represents the indigenous peoples of the Guayaquil region of Peru, launched a campaign during the health crisis to revive and enhance ancestral knowledge and craftsmanship. Knowledge that it is important to continue to preserve and enhance.

Thus, despite a lethality rate three times higher among indigenous peoples than the national average, according to the Docip, women have been able to reinvent themselves and find solutions.
More than ever, it is time to listen to them.

• “The impact of Covid-19 on the lives of indigenous women: Resisting and defending ourselves collectively” published by the Docip. https://cendoc.docip.org/collect/upd_fr/index/assoc/HASH01ed/b4bf00a2.dir/Upd115_fre.pdf

Credit: Tui Anandi