^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Ecuador - Indigenous Flags

Overview
Indigenous Flags Seen in TV - Report by Jaume Olle'
Indigenous Flags Reported by Written Sources
Indigenous Flags in the Web

See also:

Overview

Beside of the fact that there are some basic versioins of the whipala, the flag is used toghether with the same flag but which have squares in the rainbow colors instead of stripes (Kollasuyo) the whipala with stripes is called the "tawantinsuyo" flag, or the Inca flag, the inca nation flag, the quechua nation flag. In ecuador they have also some variants. The original flag is the striped whipala, which was the coat of armor of the Inca, long before they started to think of having a own gay flag, rainbow warrior or other rainbow using flags in this world.
Concering the flags which are used in the original Whipala, as the images at this page EMBLEMA NACIONAL del PUSIN-SUYU = TAWANTINSUYU- Huipala/wiphala, where and when did the rainbow flag originate from?
The Indigenous banner is called " huipala" with the seven colors of the rainbow (symbolizing the unity of indigenous peoples before the conquest) and the black flags of Ruminahui (legendary leader of the autonomous movement) and Atahualpa La bandera indígena se llama : " huipala " con los siete colores del arco iris (que simboliza la unidad de la gente indígena antes de la conquista) y de los banderas negros de Ruminahui (arranque de cinta legendario del movimiento autónomo) y Atahualpa The Rainbow flag (Wipahla) belong to the Native Andean people of Tahuantinsuyu for more than 500 years. Each color and its place in the flag as the rainbow, have an own indigenous significance.
We have heard that the Indigenous org. of Cuzco , Peru is thinking about finding another flag to symbolize our native people, because of the problem above of using the flag by the gays community and the International Co-operative Alliance, claiming that they almost invented the flag in the 1920'ies.
Laila Holtet (<www.nativeweb.org>,webmaster of CONAIE, Ecuador <conaie.org>), 9 July 2001

Indigenous Flags Seen in TV

Today I saw in TV some Ecuadorian indigenous flags. I saw four flags clearly and another one quite well:

Ecuadorian Quichua Flag

by Jaume Olle', 15 January 2000

The first one seems to be the Ecuadorian Quichua flag. It is similar to the flag quoted by NAVA as "Inca" flags but with a sun in center. As is well known "Inca" is not a people but the name of the leader (empeor) of Quichua. According to NAVA there are 8 stripes but in the TV images there were only 7 (the white stripe is missinhg). Ratio c. 2:3

Ecuadorian Indigenous Flag

by Jaume Olle', 15 January 2000

The second flag seems to be the Ecuadorian indigenous flag: is fivestriped red, yellow, white, green, white. Ratio c. 5:6 o 4:5

Standart of the CONAIE

by Jaume Olle', 15 January 2000

The third flag seems to be the standart of the CONAIE (Confederacion de nacionalidades indigenas de Ecuador).It is a square, white, with a circular logo or seal in center. The seal is a circle of five colors: red, yellow, green, orange and white.

Unknown Indigenous Flag

by Jaume Olle' , 15 January 2000

The fouth is unknown .It is a scarlat flag , bordered white in hoist, fly and lower part. In the scarlat part is a golden emblem (details of emblem aproximate) . In the lower white part sew woeds are written but unafortunately I couldn't read them from the TV image.

Indigenous Parliament Flag

by Jaume Olle' , 15 January 2000

The last flag was the flag of the Indigenous Parliament. Is the ecuadorian flag but with inscriptions: "Parlamento nacional - de los pueblos del Ecuador" (National Parliament of the Ecuador peoples) in black on the yellow stripe, and "¡La patria florecera para todos! in white on the red stripe. (¡Phaterland will florish for all!). In spanish "florecera" must be write with accent in the last "A" but in the image the accent is missing, however since the words are in capital letters it is possible to supress the accent.
Jaume Olle', 15 January 2000

Indigenous Flags Reported by Written Sources

by Ivan Sache, 31 May 2001

In today Israeli newspaper "Yediot Akharonot" there is a photo of a demonstration of the Indigenous people Ecuador. Two flags can be seen clearly. Each one has a different order of stripes. One is looks like: purple-white-blue-green-yellow-orange-red. The second looks like: red-yellow-green-light blue-purple.
Dov Gutterman, 23 January 2000

All the information above is dated from January 2000, and is linked to the events, involving the active participation of Indians, which caused the impeachment of president Jamil Mahuad. According to 'Universalia 2000' (Encyclopaedia Universalis Yearbook, published in 2001), the chronology of the events is as following:
- On 6 January, the government declared a state of emergency because of increase in popular protest. The Patriotic Front, a coalition of several unions, called for the Christian-Democrat president Jamil Mahuad, which had been elected in 1998, to resign. The president's economical policy had been strongly criticized for months and the country faced a severe crisis.
- On 9 January, the president announced US dollar would replace the Ecuadorian sucre as national currency, in order to stabilize the monetary depreciation. This announcement caused a radicalization of the protest.
- On 11 January, the representatives of the Indian nations, which constitute about 30% of the country population, created a 'Parliament of Ecuadorian Peoples' (Parlamento Nacional de los Pueblos del Ecuador). They called for the president's resignation and civil disobedience. [The Parliament flag is shown above]
- On 16 January, the spokesman of the Patriotic Front, Luis Villacis, was arrested with two other leftist leaders, within the context of the state of emergency.
- On 21 January, the Indians marched against the capital Quito and besieged the Parliament. [The flags reported by Jaume were probably filmed during the siege.] Under the Indian pressure, president Mahuad left the presidential palace and a triumvirate was set up to replace him, constituted of General Carlos Mendoza (Minister of Defence and Chief of the Army Staff), Antonio Vargas (president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador [CONAIE, whose flag is shown above), and Carlos Solorzano (past-president of the Supreme Court). General Mendoza quickly resigned and the triumvirate was dissolved.
- On 22 January, vice-president Gustavo Noboa announced he would take over the power. The Parliament, called in Guyaquil, impeached Mahuad. The Indians, understanding they had been conned once again, left peacefully Quito. The new president announced he would maintain the 'dollarization' of the economy.
- On 26 January, Gustavo Noboa was invested by Congress.
'Universalia 2000' shows a colour picture which might be the same as the one reported by Dov. As stated by Dov, there are two horizontally divided flags to be seen in the picture background:
- purple-white-blue-green-yellow-orange-red with apparent proportion 1:2.
- red-yellow-green-light blue-blue-purple with apparent proportion 3:4. Dov did report only one blue stripe, but there are
clearly two of them on my source. Proportions are surely without any signification because these flags were probably home-made.
It would be interesting to know if the different variations on the same pattern (colour horizontal stripes) refer to different nations or are simply variations on a basic pattern used by all indigenous nations (for instance, the first flag shown above is attributed to Quechuas [note that my dictionary uses both Quechuas and Kechuas, but not Qwishwas]).
Ivan Sache, 31 May 2001

Indigenous Flags in the Web

from <www.nativeweb.org>

"Alianza Indigena" flag as appear at <www.nativeweb.org/tawantinsuyu>. At the same page you can see another Indigenous Flag.
Dov Gutterman, 2 June 2001

Alianza Indigena (Indigenous alliance) flag is the rainbow flag with a disc in the center containing a portrait of the Inca Rominahui as can be seen at <www.nativeweb.org>. Interesting that the flag flown by the indigenous person in the photo is a version close to that used by the gay community (6 stripes - Red, yellow, light green, olive green, blue, purple), while the image in the page shows the flag of the gays (6 stripes - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) and the different flag of the IA (8 stripes - red, orange, yellow, green, white, lilac, dark purple, blue).
Jaume Olle', 3 June 2001

I am the person who designed the Ruminahui flag at my pages. Both the American COOP and the gay comunity have using the inca flag , the rainbow and the serpent shied and Cuzco Inca flag of stripes was "invented"! long before the europeans came to America. The gay community have not answered any email about this presented by the United Indigenous Tribal Representatives, nor from CONAIE, The indigenous leaders of Cuzco or anyone else. The old leaders in Cuzco have been thinking about changing the design of their NATIONAL flag because of this.
Laila Holtet (<www.nativeweb.org>,webmaster of CONAIE, Ecuador <conaie.org>), 9 July 2001