Irvin Ristie comes from Arowak, Karib and Javanese-Indonesian descendance in Suriname. After his hospitality and tourism studies in 2005, he worked with different indigenous communities in the Guiana Shield. In 2014 he started volunteering for the Organization of Indigenous Peoples in Suriname (OIS). He was elected in June 2018 as Coordinating Director of communication and health within the regional organization COICA (Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica) as a representative member of the OIS. Since 2019, he is one of the focal points for Suriname of the project for the protection of indigenous populations living in isolation and recent contact (PIACI) in Suriname. During the pandemic in 2020, he coordinated in the field together with the OIS members the Amazon Emergency Relief fund (AEF) providing the most vulnerable indigenous communities with health and food supplies.  He embodies this new generation of Surinamese Indigenous leaders who wish to stay to participate in the deployment of a sustainable economy, respectful of the environment and advocating for the recognition of indigenous cultural, socio-economic and territorial rights. In 2022 he founded the A’ Wore Mary Y’ne Institute (AWMY), as he noticed a significant gap in indigenous stories. This prompted him to collect and research ancestral information to tell history from an indigenous perspective with the goal to increase self-determination, and promote independence and conservation among indigenous peoples.