Kayakimün (Chile) — Rios to Rivers

KAYAKIMÜN

Kayaking to Protect the Biological and Cultural Diversity of Chile’s Biobío River Basin

“Kayakimün defends the rich bio and cultural diversity of Chile’s Biobio River Basin by developing local women and Indigenous youth in communities most affected by large hydro projects to become confident leaders navigating their ancestral waterways and as global advocates to defend the importance of free-flowing rivers.”

—Fernanda Castro Purrán, Mapuche-Pehuenche Director of Malen Leubü and Ríos to Rivers in Chile

A Youth-Led, Pehuenche-Rooted Movement

Kayakimün is a youth-led leadership movement rooted in the Biobío River Basin of Chile, stewarded for generations by the Mapuche-Pehuenche people. Born from Malen Leubü, an all-women, all-Mapuche-Pehuenche rafting collective, the program trains Indigenous women and youth in whitewater safety, river rescue, environmental literacy, and cultural revitalization.

But Kayakimün is more than a river training program. It is a space where young people reconnect with Chedungun language, ancestral Pehuenche kimün (knowledge), and the spiritual relationship between territory and identity.

Through collective care practices, land-based education, and time on the water, participants build emotional resilience, confidence, and a deep sense of belonging. In communities where extractive development has fragmented cultural ties and limited economic opportunity, Kayakimün restores pride, purpose, and agency.

We operate on a simple but powerful belief: when we fall in love with something, we fight to protect it.

Kayakimün is rooted in four pillars:

Kelluwün (Collaboration): Horizontal collaboration (no hierarchy). Everyone contributes. No discrimination. We work together to make everything happen.

Llamuwün (Respect & Self-Care): We cannot care for others if we do not care for ourselves. This pillar encompasses spiritual care, Mapuche cultural revitalization, and advocacy. It reminds us that protecting rivers is both a cultural and political responsibility.

Topabün (Self-Reliance & Agency): Self-efficacy. Autonomy. Organizing our own work and solving our own problems. We do not cultivate obedience. We cultivate critical thinkers.

Poyewün (Doing Things Sweetly) — New in 2026: This year, we added a fourth pillar: Poyewün, which involves approaching our work with kindness, generosity of spirit, and a good attitude. Leadership grounded in care.

KAYAKIMÜN - 2023 and 2024

2023

2024

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Local Leadership, Global Voice

Kayakimün prepares youth not only to navigate rapids, but to navigate their role as members of a local community and a globalized world.

Students grow as confident public speakers, organizers, and advocates capable of representing their territories beyond the Biobío. In 2025, Kayakimün youth traveled to the First Descent of the Undammed Klamath River in the United States and later to UNFCCC COP30 in Brazil, where they participated in official side events, coalition strategy sessions, press engagements, and public actions alongside global river defenders.

For many rural Indigenous youth, especially young women, access to international climate policy spaces is financially and structurally out of reach. Kayakimün actively removes those barriers. Delegates return home with strengthened networks, strategic knowledge of how global energy and climate finance decisions affect their watershed, and renewed commitment to defend free-flowing rivers.

By investing in Kayakimün, funders are supporting culturally rooted leadership development, socio-economic access to decision-making spaces, and the next generation of Indigenous river defenders shaping a just, river-centered climate future.

Why the Biobío Matters

Since the 1990s, three large dams have been constructed along the Biobío River despite national outcry and Mapuche-Pehuenche opposition.

These projects altered the river’s course, flooded ancestral lands and what was once the most biologically diverse corridor in Chile, and deeply impacted ecosystems and cultural lifeways. Additional dam proposals continue to threaten the basin, such as the Rucalhue Dam, which is just entering the construction phase.

Kayakimün exists in this context of unfinished struggle and enduring resistance. As hydropower and extractive pressures intensify under the banner of “renewable energy,” Indigenous youth are stepping forward with both ancestral wisdom and modern advocacy tools.

Strong rivers require strong people. Kayakimün is cultivating both.

Your Support Matters

Your contribution will directly support our mission to use whitewater kayaking and education to protect rivers worldwide and the communities that support them.

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