Who’s Who in Green: Q’Orianka Kilcher

Activist, actress and glaring omission from our Hottest Girls in Green list Q’Orianka Kilcher has a lot going for her. Kilcher, best known for her role as Pocahontas in the 2005 film New World (and for being singer Jewel’s cousin), has emerged as a green role model and spokesperson for the rights of women and indigenous people, particularly Peruvians. Kilcher herself was born in Germany and is of Quechua/Huachipaeri Peruvian and Swiss descent.

Kilcher, whose first name means “Golden Eagle” in Quechua, already has a long list of charity work under her belt at the age of nineteen. She has campaigned for Amnesty International for the rights of women and indigenous peoples, including protests against the petroleum industry contamination of the Amazon River Basin. She is also the teen celebrity spokesperson of Thursday’s Child, an international charity for at-risk children, and was awarded the Brower Youth Award in 2007 for her efforts.

In June 2009, dozens of indigenous people and Peruvian police died in a bloody conflict over the government’s decision to open tribal lands up to oil companies. President Alan Garcia had signed contracts for 15 oil concessions in a single month, with 75% of the country already open to oil exploration. The indigenous protesters were trying to protect their Amazon rainforest lands from destruction.

Kilcher speaks in this video from the May 2009 protest at the Peru consulate in Los Angeles (starting at the 1:25 mark):

Kilcher also spoke with Democracy Now in June, while on her way to Peru to support the Amazonian protest.

I started trying to highlight the over-thirty-five-year-long struggle that the Achuar community was facing with Occidental Petroleum, a Los Angeles-based company, you know, drilling there, using practices outlawed in the United States, pumping an average of 850,000 barrels of toxic waste in one day on one block alone, and dumping it into the rivers, not using reinjection. And so, I tried to highlight that. And Alberto Pizango and AIDESEP gave me this spear, as well as gave me a silver plate, and named me the voice of the indigenous peoples of AIDESEP.

On why she decided to travel to Peru amidst the conflict:

I’m really appalled at the misinformation and the copy-and-paste media that is happening in Peru right now. And, I mean, the major media is radicalizing the stance on indigenous peoples, because they are being persuaded by government and they’re owned by multinational companies. And they are copy-and-pasting information that is not accurate. And I want to go there. I want to show both sides. I want to inform them correctly.

And finally, check out this interview with G LIVING at the after party for the 11th Hour documentary premiere.

Q’Orianka Kilcher’s Green Score: 17,955

Related Posts:

Dozens Dead After Police Open Fire on Indigenous Oil Protesters in Peruvian Amazon
Who’s Who in Green: Hayden Panettiere
Who’s Who in Green: Vandana Shiva
Who’s Who in Green: Cameron Diaz
Who’s Who in Green: Sara Snow