A Message from Indigenous Leadership Fellows

“I don’t have to choose between who I am, and where I am.”

The following letter was written and read aloud by recipients of the Amazon Conservation Team’s Indigenous Leadership Fellowship Program — a scholarship program ACT launched in 2017 in partnership with Colombia’s Universidad Externado.

The program supports indigenous university students through mentorship, peer support, and community leadership training, while connecting them with international institutions such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Fellows return to their communities equipped to advocate for their peoples’ rights and territories.

The letter was presented to ACT co-founder Liliana Madrigal and Regional Director Carolina Gil at a celebration of the organization’s 30th Anniversary with past and current fellowship recipients.

We share this letter because it captures, in the fellows’ own words, what this work means.

Letter from ACT’s Indigenous Leadership Fellows

There are words one tries to say, but they fall short of what is truly felt.

Today I want to speak to ACT on its 30th anniversary, to its founder, to its team—not from a formal speech, but from memory and the heart.

I am from the U’wa people. I come from the plains, the mountains, the sisuma… from a territory where life moves at a different rhythm, where silence also speaks, and where one grows up feeling that they belong. But when I arrived in the city, many things changed. At times, the world became confusing, heavy, even lonely.

And in the middle of all that, this place appeared.

ACT is not just a space. It is that place where you can arrive tired and feel accompanied without having to explain everything. It is where the word “support” stops being something technical and becomes something human, close, real.

Thank you, Liliana, for having started this path 40 years ago. Thank you, Carolina Gil, for sustaining it with such dedication in Colombia—for seeing us, for taking the time (even when there is so little time in so many activities), for your words in the moments we needed them, for being another mother. Thank you to Denise, Daniela, and every person who is part of this team, because what you do is not always visible, but it is felt… and it transforms.

You have done something very valuable: you have cared not only for our needs, but also for our identity. In a context where being a young Indigenous person in the city often means losing oneself a little, you help us find ourselves again.

Here I have felt that I don’t have to choose between who I am and where I am. Here I have understood that it is possible to walk in the city without leaving behind the territory that lives within me.

And that… that is priceless.

Because when someone offers you a safe place in the midst of chaos, they are giving you more than support—they are giving you dignity, peace, and hope.

Today I celebrate these 40 years with deep gratitude. But more than celebrating time, I celebrate the love you have put into every step, every young person, every story.

Thank you for being that bridge, that refuge, that embrace that is not always seen, but is always there.

And thank you for reminding us that, even far from home, we can still feel at home.

Today, when the sun embraces memory and Mother Nature calls us together in the same place where the first dream took root, we raise our voices to honor thirty cycles of life of ACT.

We recognize that behind these initials there is not only an organization, but noble souls of clay and light. Especially, we honor the journey of Liliana and Carolina, who have made their own lives into a sacred bridge so that our ancestral territories may continue to breathe.

You have not only given us support: you have offered us a home of words and silence in the midst of asphalt—a refuge where we can continue being ourselves, far from the jungle, but close to the spirit.

You are weavers of horizons: with love as clear as water, you have nurtured the growth of us, the scholarship youth, allowing our goals to flourish without forgetting the scent of our land.

Guardians of tomorrow: even when the world does not see it, your hands have protected these children of the Earth, giving us the strength to return and care for what is sacred.

Today we ask the Great Mother that your steps never grow tired. Just as you have cared for our roots, may the spirit of the forests and the waters care for you, so that your light continues to guide those who will come.

My affection from the Sierra and from my people embraces you. Today we have been called to honor 30 years of ACT’s weaving—to commemorate from the root and the living fabric that ACT has made possible for the Indigenous peoples of Latin America, because its struggle reflects the voice of Mother Earth.

We know that this path has been built with love, patience, and dedication for those who build from the territory, who make life possible for all living beings on Earth. There are not enough words to express the affection and support ACT has given us as scholarship recipients and to our peoples who stand behind us.

I will speak from the Kamentsa feeling, as we would say in my people from ainanokan, “from the heart.” I want to express my deep gratitude for the path that has been woven with my people. I feel that ACT has known how to be a respectful companion in this weaving, creating threads that sustain the continuity of our identity.

Thank you for walking with us in strengthening and caring for our seeds, our waters, and our mountains, which are the essence of who we are. You have not only understood our worldview, but have always been present with such genuine and selfless love, willing to be one force in every territory, because you know and understand how important it is.

As ACT scholarship recipients, we are grateful for the endless support to continue building from our territories, for allowing diversity in a fast-paced world.

Pay-Pay
Duni-Duni
Hasay-Hasay
Ojkey

Signed: Andrea Chindoy, Ebawi Zarabata, Jhuana Ullune, Carolina Salazar, Ati Zariguney, and Sara Daza.