“Our Indigenous ancestors, grandmothers, and older sisters have traced the path of resistance and struggle that points the way for new generations. A better world is one in which Indigenous women, youths, and girls live free from all forms of violence and fully exercise their rights with equality, autonomy, and dignity.”

Tania Pariona Tarqui is an Indigenous human rights activist who has been organizing Quechua children and adolescents from Ayacucho, Peru, since she was 11 years old. She works to empower women and Indigenous youth as political actors on the international human rights agenda by advocating and generating proposals for reducing gender-based violence and furthering sexual and reproductive rights, territorial rights, and political participation. Between 2016 and 2019, she served as a member of Congress in Perú and she is currently an associate member of the Center for Indigenous Cultures of Peru (CHIRAPAQ).

Tania works with local and international Indigenous women’s organizations and networks to develop projects that strengthen their voices at the community, national and international levels.

Tania believes that Indigenous leadership is a form of socio-historical and political agency and is based on the desire to transform a past marked by oppression, domination, discrimination, and genocide. She aims to bring leaders from marginalized Indigenous communities together and use the shared richness of their history to expand what is possible for future generations.