Tarcila Rivera Zea from the Quechua-Chanka Nation of Peru is an important indigenous activist and recognized defender of the rights of indigenous girls, women, youth and peoples. With a career of more than 40 years, she contributes to the vindication of ancestral cultures, the strengthening of indigenous leaders and the fight against all forms of violence from her association CHIRAPAQ and other international spaces. Likewise, she promotes the coordination of organizational processes and the strengthening of the indigenous women's movement from the local to the global level.

At an international level, she has received awards from UNICEF, the Ford Foundation and the Sacred Fire Foundation. In Peru, from the Ministries of Culture and the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations for her distinguished career and valuable contributions to the promotion and defense of the rights of indigenous women and peoples. Likewise, by the National Elections Jury as a defender of democracy.

She is founder of the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA), the International Forum of Indigenous Women (FIMI-IIWF) and the Abya Yala Indigenous Forum (FIAY). She was also a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the International Advisory Group of Civil Society of UN Women, UNESCO’s International Commission on the Futures of Education, and in Peru, she was a member of the Court of Honor of the National Elections Jury. Since 2022, she is a member of the Stockholm+50 Civil Society Advisory Group.