Eighteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

This paper considers example of transdisciplinary work unfolding in the equatorial Global South. In the transition to more sustainable futures, many Kichwa communities in the Ecuadorian Andes are building resilience through local cultural revitalization projects that also aim to reach a non-Indigenous audience. The ILADES Institute in Quito created the Ancestral Knowledge and Sciences major to provide non-Kichwa speaking students the opportunity to learn traditional Andean knowledge, including cosmovision, the history of indigenous movements in Ecuador, Kichwa culture and language, traditional gastronomy and food sovereignty. The program promotes a pedagogy that examines fundamental differences between Indigenous ancestral knowledge and Western epistemologies. Attempting to address the impacts of 500-years of colonization both scholars and students, along with urban and rural Andean communities, are reclaiming and disseminating their traditional ways of seeing, feeling, speaking, governing, celebrating and relating to each other and Pacha Mama (mother nature). Elders, youth, community and spiritual leaders, are producing traditional textiles and growing traditional foods to bring to market. One key goal in the effort to promote ancestral knowledge is to reach international audiences and to contribute knowledge to the global conversation of environmental, economic, social and cultural sustainability. The current challenge is finding the necessary resources and collaborations for such outreach and cross-cultural alliances. This study examines the dissemination of Andean ancestral knowledge outside of Ecuador as part of the global process of decolonization and the transition to alternative social, economic, cultural, and environmental realties.