Community-Based Research INITIATIVE with the Shuar

Our collaborative goal working Queen's University is to explore and document 

1) Plant Medicine; 

2) Traditional Farming Practices; 

3) Shuar Ancestral Stories and Customs; 

4) Human Stewardship for Amazonian Ecosystems 

5) Singing “Anents” (Shuar Songs for Nature) to counter cultural genocide of their culture. 

Our overall collaborative goal will be to directly support the Shuar communities’ vision for the future laid out in the Shuar 2021 United Nations Development Programme and PRO Amazonia funded “Life Plan” for sustainable economic development in the region created by the Shuar themselves. The focus of is for cultural knowledge and territory conservation in the region against state-backed neocolonial interests in the region (transnational Canadian mining companies). This research is working to support their vision for sustainable development by helping to create community-based tourism in the community of Buena Esperanza, conducting countermapping using their traditional knowledge and thus, being able to support further ancestral land claims over their traditional territory. 

This work seeks to decolonize knowledge by decentring Eurocentric knowledge production between the Global South and North 

You can read  the Shuar 2021 United Nations Development Programme and PRO Amazonia funded “Life Plan” for sustainable economic development in the region  here: 

https://www.proamazonia.org