Hello! My name is Helena, I was born and raised in Brazil, and I’m in my 4th year majoring in Media Studies. As a Media Studies student, I am passionated about photography, videography, and mixed media and learning and investigating nature and society through these mediums. In Media Studies we study a bit about Indigenous cosmologies in relation to Media Theory but we don’t really study it in depth so this is one of the reasons why I’m taking this course. Also, last year I took another ‘Indigenous of Latin America’ course in special topics (that year we focused on food ways) with Tamara and the course challenged me in new ways that my own degree does not. We did (a lot of) readings that just blew my mind, putting it in simple terms, because it presented to me new forms of thinking and approaching economy, architecture, food, art, religious ceremonies… I guess life in general. I also had the opportunity to work with different Indigenous groups in Brazil after my first year of university and I felt that as I continued my studies I missed being around that knowledge and diverse community (especially in the Latin American/ Brazilian context). However, finding information there can be so hard – I first noted that when, while taking UBC classes online and listening to the land acknowledgement, I began searching about the Indigenous communities that lived on what is today the small city I grew up in and found almost no info about it. In a way the Indigenous studies focused in Latin America brings me close to home at the same time it shows me how much I don’t know about ‘home’ and the lands and histories that I find so hard to find, hear, learn sometimes when I’m there. So I guess what I’m looking forward the most about this course is to continue this infinite journey of re-discovering Latin America and ways of learning and thinking that offers other possibilities and modes of life. I would also expect in a way the inclusion of Indigenous voices as we talked in the first class and hearing different experiences and perspectives from the professor and my classmates. I’m looking forward to the term and to the class overall!
Nice meeting you!
Helena
(The Image on this page is by Edgar Kanaykõ Xakriabá, an artist i had the chance to meet and work with, whose work i admire – you can find more about him here: https://www.pipaprize.com/edgar-kanayko-xakriaba/)
