Indigeneity and the power of refusal by Wuankavilkas of Ecuador

Blog post by Dennis Wiedman, Florida International University, USA and Vanessa León León, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL), Ecuador

Collective identity is often presented in neatly defined categories by governments, NGOs and international organizations, like the United Nations framework to recognize ‘Indigenous’ peoples. Such recognition is often tied to resources, visibility and political leverage. Yet, these frameworks of Indigeneity risk freezing identities into fixed categories. What happens when communities decline these categories?

This question guided our long-term research with the Wuankavilkas, the original people of Ecuador’s Santa Elena Peninsula. Using ethnohistorical methods combining oral histories, community archives, archaeological evidence, participant observation and four years of ethnographic fieldwork, we traced how the Wuankavilkas identify themselves in everyday life and in political arenas.

In our Identities article, ‘Identity fluidity and refusal of indigeneity by Wuankavilkas, the place-based original people of the Ecuadorian coast’, the combination of historical and contemporary sources using longitudinal cultural theme analysis allowed us to describe how the Wuankavilkas' collective identity has shifted fluidly over centuries while retaining a deep connection to land and ancestry.

The Wuankavilkas have lived on Ecuador’s Pacific coast for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence shows continuous cultural transitions – from the Valdivia culture (6,500 B.P.) to the Wuankavilkas encountered by the Spanish in the 1500s, to the present day. The first recorded name, Wankavilkas, appears in 1572 in the account of Italian explorer Girolamo Benzoni.
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Over five centuries, they self-identified as Huancavilcas, Cholos, Comuneros, Huancavilcas, Cholos Comuneros and Wuankavilkas (See Figure 1). Each shift reflects situational responses to external pressures. Colonial authorities categorized them as Indios. In the republican era, they called themselves ‘Cholos’, aligning with coastal mestizo society. With the 1937 Ley de Comunas, they started self-identifing themselves as Comuneros, emphasizing communal land ownership resulting from this law.

When Ecuador’s Indigenous movement (CONAIE) rose to prominence in the 1980s, community leaders in Santa Elena strategically revived the ancestral name Wuankavilka to enter political negotiations. Despite all these efforts, the community refused to change its name to ‘Huancavilca Town’. 

Figure 1. Identity shifts and refusal among the place-based original people in Santa Elena

Through archival documents, community meeting minutes and interviews, the research revealed that these identities were not abandoned, but reactivated as circumstances required. This is what anthropologists call situational identity: a repertoire of collective identities deployed to navigate shifting political and social landscapes.
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In much of Indigenous studies, the focus has been on resistance, the direct confrontation with powerful states, corporations, settlers, etc. The Wuankavilkas often take a different approach. Their actions reflect refusal, which does not fight the state head-on but instead sidesteps or denies its authority to impose definitions.

Our fieldwork revealed that many Santa Elenians refuse identifying as ‘Indigenous’, even after the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution inserted Indigenous rights and encouraged economic development programs through local tourism initiatives. In interviews and speeches, people preferred to describe themselves as Cholos, Comuneros, or simply members of their village. Census data confirm this disinterest: in 2010, fewer than 2% of Santa Elena’s residents self-identified as Indigenous, despite decades of official promotion of Indigeneity.

These refusals reflect not a loss of heritage, but a determination to ground identity in ancestral land, kinship ties and communal responsibilities – dimensions that the Santa Elenians themselves see as more authentic than state labels.

While community members emphasize communal ties, local leaders recently mobilized Indigenous recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic. With little state assistance to address the health crisis, local leaders created a Wuankavilka Government Council. They organized medical brigades and humanitarian aid, affiliating with national Indigenous orgranizations. The leaders embraced Indigenous identity when it opened doors to partnerships and resources.

This interplay between embracing Indigenity and everyday refusal highlights the flexibility of collective identity. Leaders engage with state categories when useful, but individuals continue to anchor their belonging to land and ancestry.

Why does this matter? The Wuankavilka case resonates far beyond Ecuador. Indigenous communities worldwide face the dilemma of whether to accept external categories for recognition and resources, or to refuse them to preserve autonomy and sovereignty. Refusal, we argue, is not a denial of heritage. It is a generative act: saying ‘no’ to imposed collective identities creates alternative ways of belonging that better reflect their lived realities.

Identity fluidity, or shifting in response to situational factors, is a universal sociocultural process. Refusal of state and global ‘Indigeneity’ identities generates alternative strategies for the survivance of original peoples of the world. Sometimes, the most powerful affirmation of who you are comes through refusal.

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Image credit: Authors' own.

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Read the Identities ​article:
​Wiedman, D.W. & León León, V. (2025). Identity fluidity and refusal of indigeneity by Wuankavilkas, the place-based original people of the Ecuadorian coast. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power. DOI: ​10.1080/1070289X.2025.2545129

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Read further in Identities:

Legal indigeneity: knowledge, legal discourse and the construction of indigenous identity in Colombia

Indigenous identity, ‘authenticity’ and the structural violence of settler colonialism

Understanding racial equity in research with Indigenous Peoples: including anti-racism and decolonization approaches