This paper presents some theoretical reflections on the political reality created by the Nasa movement on northern Cauca in Colombia, in order to posit new conceptualizations to understand ethnic movements in Latin America. The discussion begins with a brief review of some gaps found in studies about those social phenomena, to continue to analyse particularities and experiences of this community process starting from the following questions: how is the nature of the Colombian Nasa movement’s indigenous politics expressed?; how could we understand its political reach in light of social movement theories?; how to analyse the dynamics of their collective actions along the last decades? These questions are answered through a theoretical approach that firstly focuses on understanding social movement political practices, to proceed with the proposal for a new typology of collective actions for these movements.