Photo: Diego Pérez / SPDA
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From a very young age, Kelly Patiachi Visse showed interest in the meetings held in her community of Shintuya, part of the Harakbut ethnic group, located along the banks of the Alto Madre de Dios River, in the district and province of Manu. She recalls learning a lot from the leaders who defended their people, but as a woman, she always felt a certain fear of speaking up, since it was uncommon for women to participate in those spaces. However, that didn’t stop her, and today she has become one of the most prominent and promising representatives of the area.
Currently, Kelly is a leader of the Executing Entity of the Administrative Contract (ECA) of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve. Her father, Ascencio Pateachi Maca, was one of the driving forces behind the creation of this reserve, which includes a sacred site known as the Harakbut Face. In fact, Kelly was one of the first women to reach this location, a historic place of pilgrimage for the Harakbut people.
Within her means, Kelly has promoted reforestation projects and worked with women on gender-related issues to address the lack of female representation in her community and foster unity to better protect the reserve from invasions, illegal logging, and other threats. To support these efforts, Patiachi Visse has pursued technical studies and participated in various workshops, and she hopes to become an environmental engineer to further contribute with proposals that benefit both her homeland and the Amazon.
As treasurer of her community, Kelly has coordinated with several organizations to organize advisory sessions, provide support, and carry out activities that promote sustainable growth. She knows that many women are afraid to follow in her footsteps for fear of what men might say, but she encourages them, firmly believing that Harakbut women are intelligent, strong, and courageous. In 2022, the young representative from Shintuya participated in the Indigenous Communicators Course organized by the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law (SPDA), where she stood out for her commitment and creativity.
During the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), held in 2023 in Dubai, Kelly Patiachi was one of the invited Peruvian women leaders. Representing the Harakbut people and the Peruvian Amazon, she highlighted the importance of empowering Indigenous women to take action in the face of the climate emergency and emphasized their value due to ancestral knowledge.
