During the last 30 years, Ecuador has seen important transformations regarding policies related to indigenous languages in the country. At the same time, foreign and local scholars have carried out numerous linguistic and anthropological investigations on several of the indigenous languages spoken in the country; however, these have had little or no impact on the vitality of the languages, which show a persistent tendency towards displacement. Framed in practices of active documentation-revitalization, this article aims to briefly show the displacement trends of Kichwa in Ecuador, to illustrate and analyze research processes that, based on collaborative research developed along with the indigenous communities, move further from documentation that exclusively benefits the linguistic scientific community, to focus on the speakers as the main agents-beneficiaries of revitalizing processes. Within such perspective, this article also describes several revitalization strategies emerging from Kichwa-speaking activists. Finally, the article brings into reflection regarding research methodologies, and underlines the urgent need to move towards true intercultural practices based more equitable interrelationships which should positively impact at the micro, meso and macro levels.