Nonviolent actions that advocate for new rights and challenge dominant discourses and practices of progress and development disrupt the colonialities of power, knowledge and being. These forms of resistance, particularly in the defence of nature’s rights and community sovereignty, remain largely unacknowledged within civil resistance studies. This paper explores how buen vivir, or Sumak Kawsay, contributes to nonviolent resistance in Ecuador by identifying areas of convergence, divergence and complementarity between these two concepts and their practical implications. It underscores the decolonial perspective of Sumak Kawsay in reclaiming being, knowledge and power, arguing that its integration into nonviolent resistance studies could foster a more inclusive and culturally responsive approach to Indigenous struggles.
