Three weeks of inspiring debates and artistic experiences, 18 October – 5 November 2021.
Watch live on People’s Palace Projects’ YouTube channel
October, London – Running for three weeks from Monday 18th October to Friday 5th November 2021, the 4th International Seminar on Indigenous Research Methodologies (IRM) will open alongside Queen Mary University’s Sustainability Week, as part of the activities that PPP are promoting in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference COP26. The programme brings together a series of online webinars, art installations at QMUL Mile End campus and the 1st Brazil Indigenous Film Festival at the ICA on 22-24 October.
Since 2019, we have hosted international events on Indigenous engagement in research partnerships and knowledge mobilisation on behalf of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). To know more about the previous activities, please click here.
Now, it is time to release the full programme of the closing event. We have invited Indigenous women activists, academics, artists, and journalists to come together for an inspiring series of webinars live-streamed with translations in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. We hope to contribute to the urgent conversation about the climate crisis, human rights, and environmental issues.
Aislan Pankararu is a visual artist who belongs to the Indigenous Pankararu people in the hinterlands of Pernambuco, north-eastern Brazil. He currently lives and works as a doctor in Brasília. His artwork is born out of his nostalgia for his origins and the need to connect deeply with his ancestry. For Aislan, art is an artistic and therapeutic embrace that allows him to affirm his struggle and belonging in the spaces he occupies. In 2020, he held his first exhibition, Abá Pukuá (Sky Man), exploring these key issues. In his works, made mainly on kraft paper, the colour white and circular lines predominate, recreating the typical matrices of his people. In 2021, he opened the show Yeposanóng at the Memorial of the Indigenous Peoples (Memorial Dos Povos Indigenas) in Brasília.
Andrew Livingston hails from Taranaki, New Zealand, and studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Canterbury. After completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge, he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College in 1990, serving as Head of Department from 2008 to 2016. Since 2016 he has been the inaugural Director of the Barrer Centre at Imperial College. He served as interim Academic Lead in 2017 and, in 2019, as interim Director of the new Rosalind Franklin Institute, set up with a £100M investment from the UK Government to carry out ground-breaking research at the interface of engineering, physical sciences, and life sciences. In November 2019, he joined Queen Mary University of London as Vice-Principal (Research and Innovation).
Catherine Paskell is a theatre-maker and Artistic Director of the Dirty Protest Theatre and a founding Member and Creative Associate of National Theatre Wales. In 2016, as part of the British Council’s Shakespeare 400 celebrations, she directed The Merchant of Venice in Portuguese in a new version by Brazilian playwright, Marcos Barbosa. This was produced by PPP and supported by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). During the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic, Dirty Protest collaborated with PPP to support six young poets from the Complexo da Maré, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, to create four audio dramas, called Becos, via online writing workshops.
Catriona Fallow is a Lecturer in Performance at the University of the West of Scotland and a former Research Grants Coordinator at PPP. Broadly, her work is concerned with the relationships between contemporary playwriting and text-based performance, the institutions in which this work is developed, the role these works play in the UK’s performance ecology, and how they circulate internationally. She recently co-edited Harold Pinter: Stages, Networks, Collaborations, and her work also appears in Performing #MeToo: How Not to Look Away, Beautiful Doom: The Work of Dennis Kelly on Stage and Television, and in forthcoming issues of Early Theatre and Modern Drama.
Christian Bendayán was born in the city of Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon. An artist and curator, he has exhibited his work internationally as well as curated numerous exhibitions within Peru. His awards include, in 2000, the National Art Contest Passport and, in 2012, the National Culture Award. He was previously the Director of the National Institute of Culture of Loreto, as well as the founding Partner and Artistic Director of Art Lima (2013-2016). Previously, he was the Founder and Director of Bufeo: Amazonía + Arte (2015-2018), a project dedicated to the research, promotion, and management of Amazonian art. In 2019, his exhibition Indios antropófagos represented Peru at the 58th Venice Art Biennale (La Biennale di Venezia) in 2019. In 2021, he directed AMA/zones of Myths and Visions, a documentary miniseries on Amazonian art. His essay ‘The Artivism of the Amazonia Mythic Imagination’ is included in the 2021 publication Amazonia: Anthology as Cosmology.
Christopher Smith is the Executive Chair of AHRC and International Champion for UKRI. He has taught as a Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews since 2002. At St Andrews, he was also Dean of Arts (2002-2006), Dean of Graduate Studies (2006-2009), and Vice-Principal (2007-2009), before being seconded as Director of the British School at Rome – the UK’s leading humanities and creative arts research institute overseas – from 2009 to 2017.
Gabriel Kozlowski is a Brazilian architect and curator based in Boston. He is currently the Principal of architectural firm POLES and the Assistant Curator for the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale 2021 (La Biennale di Venezia). Past curated exhibitions include Walls of Air at the Brazilian Pavilion during the 2018 Venice Biennale, and Housing+ at the 3rd Biennial Exhibit of the MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism. Gabriel’s recent books include:The World as an Architectural Project, 8 Reactions for Afterwards, and Walls of Air: Brazilian Pavilion 2018. He has held regular teaching positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is currently pursuing his PhD at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Gareth Loudon is Professor of Creativity and Head of Programmes for the MA/MSc in Innovation Design Engineering and MA/MSc in Global Innovation Design at the Royal College of Art in London. Both programmes are run jointly with Imperial College London. Previously, Gareth was Associate Dean (Research) at the Cardiff School of Art and Design. He has also worked for Apple and Ericsson Research in the design and development of new software and computer-embedded products. Gareth’s research interests combine ideas from anthropology, psychology, engineering, and design. He has led international transdisciplinary research projects both in academia and industry, and is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Giovanna Fassetta is Senior Lecturer in Social Inclusion at the School of Education, University of Glasgow. She holds a PhD in Sociology and currently leads and teaches MA courses, with a focus on inclusion in formal and informal education in relation to: ethnicity, languages, and culture; social class; gender; and intersectional forms of discrimination. Prior to joining academia, Giovanna worked for more than 20 years as a teacher and language specialist in Italy, Eritrea, and the UK. Giovanna’s research portfolio includes projects looking at: migration and education; languages and social justice; conflict transformation; and peace-building. She is currently a Co-Investigator on the Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace Network Plus.
Gringo Cardia is a creator and curator of museums and arts exhibitions in Brazil and Europe, as well as a designer, architect, and scenographer. He is the founder of a social project for young people called Spectaculu School of Art and Technology in Rio de Janeiro.
Ian Stanton is Head of International Development and Area Studies at AHRC, where he has responsibility for AHRC’s development research funded under the Newton Fund and the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). His team’s remit also covers the thematic areas of conflict, migration, and education, as well as the AHRC-FCDO joint programme on Humanitarian Protection. Prior to his time at AHRC, Ian worked for Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in the Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy team, where he developed BBSRC’s bioenergy strategy – both in the UK and with international partners.
Iokiñe Rodríguez is a Venezuelan sociologist based at the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia, where she works as a Senior Lecturer in Environment and Development. Her areas of specialisation focus on working with Indigenous communities in Latin America. As part of interdisciplinary research teams, she has worked as an advisor and facilitator for the Indigenous peoples of the Pemon (Venezuela), Wapichana (Guyana), Monkox (Bolivia) on issues of historical reconstruction, Indigenous environmental knowledge, local environmental management, and construction of life plans, and has been a facilitator of intra-cultural dialogues on issues of environmental conflicts between Indigenous people in Venezuela.
Ketty Marcelo López is a leader of the Yánesha Asháninka people, whose ancestral lands are in the Pervian forests of Junín, Pasco, Huánuco, and part of Ucayali. Hailing from Pucharini, Ketty has been involved in community leadership from a young age, with women’s leadership and the issues of securing tenure rights high up on her activism agenda. When she became a member of the Board of Directors of the Centre for Native Communities of Central Selva (Central de Comunidades Nativas de la Selva Central), she confronted the mining company that was allegedly polluting the Chanchamayo and Perené rivers. She is currently the president of the National Organisation of Indigenous Andean and Amazonian Women (Organización Nacional de Mujeres Indígenas Andinas y Amazónicas).
Kimaren ole Riamit is an Indigenous people’s leader from the Maasai Pastoralists Community in southern Kenya. He is a Founder-Director of Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners (ILEPA), a community-based Indigenous peoples’ organisation based in Kenya that works on Indigenous Pastoralist communities’ concerns. Kimaren holds an MA in Development Anthropology, a postgraduate diploma in Project Planning and Management, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Foods, Nutrition and Dietetics.
Liliana Armero Guerrero hails from the Indigenous Inga people of Aponte, based in the south-west of Colombia. She is a specialist in agricultural production health from the University of Cauca, and graduated from the EARTH University in Costa Rica as an agricultural engineer. Liliana campaigns to strengthen the traditions of her Indigenous culture and is a member of the Inga people’s national organisation, the Indigenous Territorial Entity of the Inga People of Colombia (Atun Wasi Iuiai-AWAI), that endeavours to revitalise the mountainous communitarian territory in Aponte, which was left brown and depleted after decades of monoculture. Projects include the chagra, a communally managed plot of land where crops are grown to feed the community, and which celebrates the diversity of plants.
Lilly Sar is the Director at the Centre for Social and Creative Media at the University of Goroka, Papua New Guinea. She has worked extensively in rural communities, addressing global issues such as poverty alleviation, food security, environmental sustainability, and gender imbalance. She has diverse experience in utilising communication for social change methods to address development initiatives.
Lúcia Sá is Professor of Brazilian Studies at the University of Manchester. Currently, she is co-investigator of the AHRC project ‘Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America’, where she leads a strand dedicated to indigenous cultural production from Brazil. She is the author of Rainforest Literatures: Amazonian Texts and Latin American Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 2004) and Life in the Megalopolis: Mexico City and São Paulo (Routledge, 2007), and of several articles and book chapters on Brazilian culture.
Maria Grazia Imperiale teaches various postgraduate courses at the School of Education, University of Glasgow. She has conducted research on language education, multilingualism, and intercultural education in several ODA contexts, including contexts of emergencies and protracted crisis such as Palestine, Lebanon, Ethiopia, using decolonising and participatory approaches. She is the Academic Coordinator for the Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace Network Plus, and a member of the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts. She holds a PhD in Language Education and an MA in Applied Linguistics and Intercultural Communication.
Nathaniel Mann is a singer, composer, broadcaster, and sound artist, known for site-specific performances, radio documentaries, and music and tours with experimental folk trio Dead Rat Orchestra. In 2017, Nathaniel began collaborating with Indigenous Brazilian film-maker Takumã Kuikuro. He has subsequently collaborated closely with traditional singer Akari Waura, film-maker Piratá Waura, and the entire Wauja Community of the Xingu in the restoration of the sacred cave of Kamukuwaká. During the Kamukuwaká project, Nathaniel met Shirley Djukurnã Krenak, and their shared passion for sound set the scene for a future dialogue, which is now unfolding around this session.
Olinda Silvano is an internationally exhibited Indigenous artist belonging to the Shipibo-Konibo peoples from the Peruvian Amazon basin. She employs the natural and spiritual world in her design using kene – an ancient art representing nature and the living culture of her people. She was taught kene as a child growing up in Paoyhan, and has become one of the vanguards of her culture’s art, mainly through embroidery and mural paintings. In 2018, she was recognised as a Meritorious Personality of Culture in Peru for her contribution to the development of artistic creativity and the teaching of traditional kené design. In 2019, the Municipality of Lima awarded her a prize for promoting the ancestral art of her native Ucayali, and preserving her native language and customs amongst the women of her community.
Patricia Gualinga is a Kichwa leader of the original Sarayaku Indigenous peoples, whose ancestral lands are situated in eastern Ecuador. She is an Indigenous rights defender and foreign relations leader for her people, in particular related to land, territory, and the environment in the Ecuadorian Amazon, including oil concessions in the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples there. She represented the Sarayaku people before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and helped to win a legal victory against oil exploitation in their territory in 2012. She is a member of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network, a network featuring 1000 organisations from the Amazon to create a development model that privileges the poor and serves the common good.
Paul Heritage is Professor of Drama and Performance at Queen Mary University of London and Director of People’s Palace Projects. For more than two decades, Paul has created award-winning cultural projects addressing human rights issues in Brazil and in the UK.
Pedro Rothstein was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil and is a political scientist, arts manager, and theatre-maker. He works as a Research Project Manager at PPP in the areas of Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Indigenous Peoples, and Climate Justice and Cultural Value. He is currently a PhD Drama candidate at Queen Mary University of London with a fellowship from Fundació La Caixa.
Piratá Waurá is a teacher, photographer, and filmmaker of Waurá ethnicity who in Piyulaga village in the Xingu Indigenous territory, central Brazil. After graduating from the State University of Mato Grosso, he received funding in 2017 from the Americas Research Network to participate in research and training in Washington, DC, where he studied approaches to transcribing and translating oral texts as well as best practices for creating and maintaining digital archives of primary source material for language revitalisation. In 2018, he was chosen to be a Coordinator for Piyulaga village in the Wauja Language Documentation Project.
Samela Awiá is an Indigenous environmental activist who hails from the Sateré Mawé people of Brazil, forest people whose ancestral homelands were by the headwaters of tributaries of the Amazon. She campaigns via her YouTube channel and other social media platforms to protect the future of the rainforest and her community. The university Biology student spearheads Brazil’s Fridays for Future, set up by Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg. She plays an active part in the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, the National Articulation of Indigenous Women Ancestrality Warriors, the Association of Indigenous Women Sateré Mawé, and the Indigenous Students Movement of Amazonas. She is also a consultant for the Amazonia Sustainable Foundation’s Indigenous agenda.
Shirley Djukurnã Krenak is an Indigenous woman from Brazil who belongs to the Krenak people, a native group in the state of Minas Gerais. She has worked in many areas related to her native culture since the age of 13. Alongside her brothers, she fights for land rights, ancestry rights, and campaigns to end violence against Indigenous peoples. She currently leads projects relating to the practice of healing through ancestry, and how the native Krenak culture can help to raise environmental awareness. Shirley advocates a need for a collective way of thinking, acting, and listening, which she promotes in schools alongside Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation (APIB) organisation (Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil) and through her own Shirley Djukurnã Krenak Institute (Instituto Shirley Djukurnã Krenak).
Sueli Maxacali is a leader of the Tikm?’?n, better known as the Maxacali, an Indigenous peoples from the region between the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais, Bahia, and Espírito Santo. Despite a forced eviction from their ancestral land and near extinction, the Tikm?’?n have maintained their language and culture and are today divided into communities distributed in the Vale do Mucuri, in Minas Gerais. Sueli Maxacali and her partner Isael Maxacali are also educators, artists and filmmakers, whose work embodies their community’s traditional practices and fight for land. Together, they have produced some of the most emblematic films in contemporary Indigenous art, aiming to promote ancestral rituals and traditions while also engaging in the fight for the rights of her people.
Takumã Kuikuro is an internationally recognised filmmaker and a member of the Kuikuro people, a community who live in the upper reaches of the Xingu River in the Amazon basin. Trained through Brazil’s NGO programme Video in the Villages (Video nas Aldeias), he received international acclaim for films including The Day the Moon Menstruated, The Hyperwomen, and Kariokas. In 2015, becoming PPP’s Artist in Residence led to the film London as a Village (Londres como Aldeia), which was screened in the Ipatse and Kalapalo villages in the Xingu territory as part of The Art of Cultural Exchange, a research project led by Queen Mary and PPP’s Paul Heritage. Since 2019, Takumã has co-curated the Indigenous Research Methods seminar series with Paul, and co-curated installations in the UK and US.
Thiago Jesus is a London-based Brazilian creative producer, curator and researcher. He works as Senior Project Manager at People’s Palace Projects and leads the Indigenous Exchange and Climate Action programme. Thiago is a Royal Society of Arts fellow, holds a Master’s Degree in Visual Culture from the University of Westminster and is currently a PhD Drama candidate at Queen Mary University of London with a London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) Research Studentship.