Transnational activism based on the appropriation of audiovisual media such as photography, film, television and the Internet by Amazonian indigenous peoples and their leaders was and remains crucial for redefining the imagery of indigenous peoples as well as their plights. The presentations by Silvia Romio, Andrea Scholz and Ingrid Kummels will deal with such collaborative projects between the Awajún, Asháninka, Nomachiguenga, Kotiria, Wira poná, Yekuana and German activists or scholars from the late 1970s to date. A close collaboration between Amazonian indigenous leaders such as Awajún Evaristo Nugkuag, founder of the Interethnic Organization of Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), particularly with activists from the German Society for Threatened Peoples (GfBV), gave rise to a broad Amazonian Indigenous Movement that privileges the use of audiovisual media. Currently a collaborative relationship concerning objects created by Amazonian societies kept in the Ethnological Museum Berlin is being developed. The project “Living Things in Amazonia – Sharing Knowledge in the Humboldt-Forum” uses an Internet platform to establish mutually beneficial relationships between the museum and indigenous stakeholders in Amazonia.

This networking event invites scholars and practitioners to shed additional light on South American-German collaborations and their audiovisual dimensions – past, present and future. We look forward to a lively exchange!

Presentations (in English and Spanish)

4:15pm Silvia Romio (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú): The Conquest of Visuality: Peruvian Amazonian Leaders’ Collaboration with German Activists during the “Herzog Case”.

4.45pm Andrea Scholz (Ethnologisches Museum Berlin): Sharing Knowledge: On the Life of Things in the Amazon and the Museum. 

5:15pm Ingrid Kummels (Lateinamerika-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin): The Anthropologist’s Data as Unexpected Memories: The Afterlife of Music Cassettes, Photos and Super 8 Films. 

Contact: Ingrid Kummels, kummels@zedat.fu-berlin.de