Shiwiar

The Shiwiar are a small Chicham-speaking nationality of the far southeast of Ecuador's Pastaza province, occupying the headwater forests between the Conambo, Corrientes and upper Tigre rivers along the Peruvian border, with related communities in Peru's Loreto region. Recognized as a distinct nationality in Ecuador, they number roughly a thousand people, and many younger Shiwiar are trilingual in Shiwiar Chicham, Kichwa and Spanish.

Like their Achuar and Shuar relatives, the Shiwiar live from women's manioc and plantain gardens and men's hunting, fishing and gathering, in dispersed communities linked by kinship and reachable mainly by small aircraft and river. Their identity emphasizes deep practical knowledge of the forest — the name itself is often glossed as "those who know" — and their ceremonial and craft traditions parallel other Chicham peoples, including blowgun making and feather ornament work.

The Shiwiar consolidated as a separate nationality in the 1990s after the Ecuador–Peru border conflicts hardened the frontier through their lands, and they are represented by the organization NASHIE within CONFENIAE. Their remote territory has so far escaped roads, but oil blocks drawn over southeastern Pastaza and the endangered status of their language are ongoing concerns for the communities.