Jose Sebastián Vacas Oleas

This project aims to record, synthesize, and preserve Shuar historic memory regarding ancestral migratory movement, kinship, and indigenous use, occupancy, and relation to land over time. Its purpose is guided by indigenous concerns regarding who and why gets to write about indigenous history and the project aims to produce a series of maps and video footage inspired by indigenous historical consciousness. These materials will explore Shuar notions of history beyond colonial understandings and record the lives, migratory movements, and political relations of Shuar ancestors and their connections to the people in a Shuar land reserve today. We want to know how people in this land reserve remember forebears in the past and study how these ancestors relate to current Shuar understandings and perceptions of belonging to their land today. And we aim to demonstrate that Shuar historic knowledge about ancestors, as currently discussed and understood by Shuar people provides a significant insight into understanding current Shuar relations to land and territorial claims.