Iakumama 2050: Imagining 'Environmental Peace' through Transdisciplinary Encounters in the Colombian Amazon

Methodology

The project implements three interconnected methodological approaches that use digital tools and cultural practices to mediate knowledge production, rather than treating them as ends in themselves. 

All activities are co-designed and co-produced by European based researchers and Inga knowledge holders through participatory workshops and fieldwork collaboration. Firstly, a chatbot supported by AI will be developed in collaboration with Inga youth and engineers to explore indigenous conceptions and generate visual and narrative representations of environmental peace. Secondly, a participatory podcast will document stories, songs and reflections on environmental conflicts and future scenarios of peace. This will combine training, community media strengthening and collaborative storytelling. Thirdly, the revival of the Inga women's iakumama ritual will be treated as practice-based research through ecological conservation activities, intergenerational transmission and engagement with traditional authorities. This will enable the production of embodied knowledge and facilitate dialogue with non-human nature. 

Each of these activities will give rise to preliminary workshops aimed at ensuring an equitable exchange of knowledge between scholars based in Germany and those in the Colombian Amazon. Notably, the Inga community will retain co-ownership of the intellectual property rights to the project's final products.