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The Ndyuka people, also known as Aukan people or Okanisi, are a Maroon ethnic group who live in the Eastern part of Suriname and speak the Ndyuka language. They are often subdivided into the opu, who live upstream of the rivers of Eastern Suriname, and the bilo, who live downstream.
They further subdivide themselves into fourteen matrilinear kinship groups called lo.
The Ndyuka and related people are of African descent, having been shipped as slaves to Suriname about 300 years ago to work on English colonial plantations. Those who escaped, fled deep into the rainforests where they established communities along rivers in eastern Suriname and parts of neighboring French Guiana and where their culture adopted elements of Native American cultures.
On 10 October 1760, the Ndyuka signed a treaty with the Dutch colonizers, who allowed them territorial autonomy. 10 October is still a day celebrated among some Surinamese Maroons.
In the last decades of the 20th century a large number of the Ndyuka people have moved from their ancestral villages to the coast, especially in and around Paramaribo, the country's capital.