Decolonising Sumak Kawsay in Indigenous Film and Media
Translation and More-than-Human Archives in Eriberto Gualinga's The Return (2021)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4501373 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maria Fernanda Miño Puga (0000-0002-8154-4477, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 239-253 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Latin American Perspectives (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0094582x251377002 |
| OpenAlex | W4414375414 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 18 |
Sumak Kawsay, Buen Vivir or Good Living is a concept derived from Andean Indigenous cosmologies, understood as living in harmony with one another and with nature. In the 21st century, a more drastic shift occurred when Pink Tide governments employed the term to redact their own national development plans. This article proposes two decolonial approaches to analyze Sumak Kawsay in Indigenous film and media: 'Film as translation', where adapting ancestral knowledges to moving images can imply a loss of meaning to the detriment of Indigenous communities; and 'The Living Forest as archive' where the non-human landscape of these territories represents a living repository of memory, in constant need of defending. These approaches are used to analyze Eriberto Gualinga's film The Return (2021), with the Kichwa community of Sarayaku as its main case study. Sumak Kawsay, Buen Vivir o Good Living es un concepto derivado de las cosmologías indígenas andinas, entendido como la vida en armonía tanto entre los seres humanos como con la naturaleza. En el siglo XXI se produjo un viraje más drástico cuando los gobiernos de la Marea Rosada emplearon el término para redactar sus propios planes nacionales de desarrollo. Este artículo propone dos enfoques decoloniales para analizar el Sumak Kawsay en el cine y los medios indígenas: "el cine como traducción", donde la adaptación de saberes ancestrales a las imágenes en movimiento puede implicar una pérdida de sentido en detrimento de las comunidades indígenas; y "la selva viviente como archivo", en el cual el paisaje no humano de estos territorios constituye un repositorio viviente de la memoria, en constante necesidad de defensa. Estos enfoques se aplican al análisis de la película The Return (2021) de Eriberto Gualinga, teniendo como principal caso de estudio a la comunidad kichwa de Sarayaku
Harmony (color · Indigenous · Indigenous culture · Meaning (existential · African history and culture studies · Anthropological Studies and Insights · South Asian Studies and Conflicts
Decolonial Approaches to Latin American Literatures and Cultures
On Unthinking Eurocentrism
Rights of nature and rivers in Ecuador’s Constitutional Court
Indigeneity in Latin American Cinema
Development for a postneoliberal era? Sumak kawsay, living well and the limits to decolonisation in Ecuador
The indigenous movement in Ecuador
Buen vivir (Good Living)
Ecuador's Buen vivir
Indigenous Plots in Twenty-First Century Latin American Cinema
Indigenous Cosmopolitics in the Andes
Riverhood
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |