Tag: <span>Napo Runa</span>

Tag: Napo Runa

talk

Indigenous foodways in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Subsistence matters: The erosion & resurgence of indigenous foodways in the Ecuadorian Amazon – a presentation delivered at POLLEN 2024 in Lund, 10-12 June, 2024 Hi everybody. My name is Nina. Thanks for inviting me, I am glad to be here. I have been at SDU for almost 2 years now, at the Dept for Business and Sustainability and affiliated with the Centre for Rural Research. I am part of the international research collectives Cultivate & Agroecology Now. … …

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media appearance

Project launch

The municipality of our hosts in Archidona posted this nice little video with segments from the project launch: Municipalidad de Archidona welcomes Power of the Chakra, a research collaboration to explore the Kichwa (or Napo Runa) “chakra”, which traditionally is a family’s network of intergenerational forest gardens in the Upper Napo region of the Amazon. As civilisation marches forth the forest falls and from the ashes rises the chakra, because subsistence matters. What the chakra of the future … …

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projects

Power of the Chakra

Power of the Chakra is also known as Espacio de Vida – a community investigation project in Ecuador and Peru that has its own subdomain/website here: https://chakras.subsistencematters.net. My first project as PI, funded by AHRC and hosted in Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience. Short intro: Why is the chakra important? What can we learn from the chakra? What are the biggest problems that indigenous communities are facing, and how can the chakra help? What spiritual teachings does … …

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funding options

Revival of indigenous agroforestry

Applications are now closed for this PhD studentship on the revival of indigenous agroforestry systems. We were overwhelmed by the interest in this project, as well as the quality of the applications we received. We could have recruited several very good candidates for the project with relevant competences, experiences and networks in the Upper Napo region. For that reason we are currently exploring further funding options, including crowdfunding. If you are interested in joining this effort, do not … …

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book review

Plants that speak and institutions that don’t listen

A few years ago I wrote a chapter for a book edited by Michel Pimbert with the title ‘Food Sovereignty, Agroecology and Biocultural Diversity: Constructing and Contesting Knowledge‘. The chapter is about ‘Plants that speak and institutions that don’t listen’ and features ‘notes on the protection of traditional knowledge’ and it is based on field work I did for my PhD in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It was recently brought to my attention that Colin Tudge has reviewed the … …

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viewpoint

Yachaks, knowledge, ayahuasca and protection

This is a brief extract from my thesis (more on that here), featuring an interview with a Kichwa shaman about yachaks, knowledge, ayahuasca and protection. 5.3.1 Wizards and Fighter Jets. “How do you protect your knowledge?” I asked a middle-aged yachak [‘one who knows’, plural yachakuna], a traditional Kichwa healer, wizard and community adviser, as we were preparing a large amount of ayahuasca brew, the hallucinogenic drink ‘that makes you see’, and ultimately, ‘know and heal’. “You need … …

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viewpoint

‘Living in Napo’: a brief political economy of extraction and colonisation in the Ecuadorian Amazon

This is a presentation of Chapter 3, ‘Living in Napo’, of my PhD thesis (The Protection of Traditional Knowledge in the Ecuadorian Amazon: A Critical Ethnography of Capital Expansion, 2010), which is a brief political economy of extraction and colonisation in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It contextualises my fieldwork (2005-2008) in the Napo region, as well as the key focus of my research in that period, a participatory bioprospecting project. “Antes los gringos decían que somos estúpidos, ahora quieren … …

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talk

Awakkuna: Knitting for conservation in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Title: Awakkuna: Knitting for conservation in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Abstract: Crafting certain essentials of everyday and celebratory life (baskets, clay pots, carrying and fishing nets, tools, jewellery and ornamentation) has been—and in certain cases still is—a fundamental aspect of Napo Runa (Amazonian Kichwa of the Upper Napo River, Ecuador) subsistence and conviviality. Making ‘artesanias’ for sale has, for many families, become a key aspect in a bundle of livelihood strategies which confirms cultural identity and conveys a sense … …

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talk

‘More-than-sustainable’ cultural forests of Amazonian pasts

Title: ‘More-than-sustainable’ cultural forests of Amazonian pasts: The other side of the anthropocene and the future human habitat. Abstract: The anthropocene, despite contested meanings and definitions, tends to imply a ‘negative impact human social metabolism’. On the basis of a nascent action research project on ancestral chakras (traditional forest garden systems) in the Ecuadorian Amazon with Napo Runa (lowland Kichwa) communities, I explore ‘the other side of the anthropocene’ in the praxis of ‘cultural forests’ (Balée 2013). Archaeologists … …

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viewpoint

Kichwa community leader on pandemic

This is a low resolution video, recorded and sent by phone from the Upper Napo region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. It is by Patricio Andi – who is a Kichwa community leader – on the pandemic. His comments reflect those of all my Napo Runa friends, teachers, connections and informants, and there is currently a revival of traditional medicine and food in response to the pandemic. This a natural response, which can also be found in other regions … …

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viewpoint

Kichwa midwife on corona pandemic

Below you find four low resolution videos – recorded on and sent by phone – in which Ofelia Salazar, Presidenta of AMUPAKIN, talks about the pandemic from her perspective, living in a road-accessible community of the Upper Napo region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. She speaks in Spanish. In time we will create subtitles for these videos and also provide transcripts. It is provided for general interest and as part of a collection of reference material for an article … …

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viewpoint

Pandemic in the Amazon

This is an expanded version of an article I co-wrote with John Martin Pedersen, which appeared in The Conversation ‘How indigenous people in the Amazon are coping with the coronavirus pandemic‘. This expanded version includes several paragraphs that did not meet editorial approval. We also collect additional reference material here, especially statements and messages directly from the Amazon (particularly Ecuador and Peru) which were shared with us specifically for this purpose. This is work in progress [last edit: … …

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talk

Green transition friction in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Title: Green transition friction in the Ecuadorian Amazon This is a talk (or guest lecture) I was invited to give at Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Wales as part of their MSc Sustainability and Behaviour Change in January 2020. It is primarily based on field work done during two fellowships between 2016 and 2019 and draws on my research and collaborations with Amazonian peoples since 2005: Independent Social Research Foundation Fellow, Oxford Department of International Development, University … …

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