Ayni Amawta in the Sleeping Lion Rock, Saraguro (Kichwa: Ayni=Gathering/teamwork, Amawta: Wise). By Victor Sauca 2016.
I am from the southern region of Ecuador, South America. I belong the
Saraguro people which is part of Kichwa nation. Kichwa is my mother tongue but due to socio-cultural circumstances I couldn’t learn it (I am working on that now). The first half of my life passed in the Amazon rainforest and the second in the highlands–Andes. Currently, I am a second year student majoring in First Nations and Indigenous Studies (FNIS) with a minor in Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice (GRSJ) at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
I am really interested in Indigenous cosmologies, knowledge, politics, and so forth, from all over the Americas. Since my childhood I was attracted to Indigenous spirituality, which is discriminated in a colonial and Christian society like the Ecuadorian (even within my own family). This is the meain reason why I chose to major in FNIS and also why I am doing a research on Indigenous Master/Sacred plants and presenting on this site. Besides, Indigenous peoples from Ecuador have a long history of resistance, for example their influence for the inclusion of the Sumak Kawsay–which protects the rights of Mother Earth– in Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution, was a groundbreaking achievement in the modern history of Indigenous peoples. However, I think a setting like UBC’s gives opportunity to gain and exchange perspectives and knowledge. I find unsettling the way in which Indigenous knowledge coexists and interacts with a Western education environment there.
For now, I am just studying, doing some extra activities, and thinking of how I could make a contribution to Indigenous peoples back home. I am exited to see what is waiting for me in the coming courses.
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