Circulos de Conversación [Talking Circles] and Art-Based Methods: An Insurgent Data Collection Methodology

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the carving [of] spaces that enable researchers to acompañar [walk with/accompany] a process of those that hold both ancient and cosmic knowledge carried across generations through oral traditions. Thus, it presents a pathway to a qualitative research methodology used to gather Indigenous Women’s experiences of inclusion/exclusion in a country in South America. More specifically, the goal of this paper is to discuss art-based methods and círculos de conversación [talking circles] as data gathering while following principles of reciprocity, solidarity, mutual respect and complementarity. Implications such as researchers needing to reposition in relation to occidental ethical principles that necessitate us to be neutral are discussed last.

This paper draws on the Epistemologies of the South (ES) to propose an alternative modality to positivistic research. It begins with a discussion of ES and the theoretical framework of Coloniality of Power and Coloniality of Gender. The context of the study, including a description of the research site, follows. Additionally, the research design and a brief summary of the findings are also presented. The círculos de conversación [conversation circles] and a discussion of the implications are discussed last.

Epistemologies of the South (ES) (de Sousa Santos, 2009), developed over the span of three decades, posits that as a result of the domination of capitalism, coloniality/modernity, and due to the imposition of a universal knowledge, we are experiencing a sociology of absences. de Sousa Santos (2016) added that ES has proposed the sociology of emergences, which seeks to repair the monolithic knowledge created by such domination, thus bringing to light the multiplicity of knowledge and social realities based on an ecology of knowledge, temporality, reclaiming differences, tran-scales and productivity. Escobar (2020) added that ES offers

“an undeniable framework for social transformation to emerge at the intersection of the Global North and the Global South, theory and practice, the academy and social life in many decades” (p. 67). Furthermore, this framework focuses on trajectories for carving spaces [emphasis added], enabling thought to engage with life with curiosity while walking along the diversity of knowledge held by those whose experience cannot be rendered legible by Eurocentric knowledge in the academic mode.

This paper seeks to contribute to the carving [of] spaces that enable researchers to acompañar [walk/accompany] a process of those that hold both ancient and cosmic knowledge carried across generations through oral traditions. Thus, it presents a pathway to a qualitative research methodology used to gather Indigenous Women’s experiences of inclusion/exclusion in a country in South America. More specifically, the goal of this paper is to discuss art-based methods and círculos de conversación [talking circles] as data gathering while following principles of reciprocity, solidarity, mutual respect and complementarity (Rivera, personal communication, June 12, 2017). Círculos de conversación is a practice used by Indigenous Peoples globally (i.e., in Canada) (Nadeau et al., 2022). Nadeau et al. (2022) referred to this process as decolonizing community-based research (CBR). Escobar (2014) stated that it is a practice rooted in the Indigenous communities who have vast and rich epistemic knowledge; with it, we could dream for the betterment of humanity and achieve el buen vivir [the good life]. It could be said that it has survived the cultural genocide of the original People’s way of life.

Loncón (2019) stated that since the Conquest, Indigenous Peoples have been subjected to the dispossession of their resources, cultures, rights and languages. “They have endlessly resisted to exist. To a large extent, it has been their difference [emphasis added] that is — their way of life, languages and cultures, that have allowed them to resist” (Loncón, 2019, p. 250). Tzúl (2016) added, la historia oral nos ha permitido ser [oral histories have allowed us to be]. Global South theorists like de Sousa Santos (2009) added that native cultures provide lessons of ancestral wisdom that both affect and modify theoretical and epistemological coordinates of reality.

Theoretical Framework: Coloniality of Power

Several Latin American scholars have stated that there exists a strong link between colonialism, development and globalization (da Souza Silva, 2004; Escobar, 2004; Galeano, 2009; Martínez Salázar, 2012; Mígnolo, 2000; Objío, 2009; Quijano, 2000). Quijano (2000) argued that colonialism introduced a world pattern that continues to be an instrument of global domination, that is, the social construct of race [emphasis added] as a biological structure that legitimizes differences across humans, thus dividing them between superior and inferior. During colonial times, new social identities were disseminated (i.e., Indian, Black, Yellow, Olive, White and Mestizo/a). However, in contemporary times, these attributed social identities have continued to be sources of domination. These classifications proved, even nowadays, to be the most effective mechanism of domination within capitalism across the globe. Quijano (2000) added that global relations continue to be shaped by power structures rooted in ancient regimes and the various institutions imposed by colonialism, that is, the coloniality of power. Quijano (2000) referred to the coloniality of power as follows:

When colonialism was eliminated, the colonial relationship of domination between the races did not vanish, but in many cases, became much more active and decisive in the configuration of power, moving from an institutional (colonialism) to another (independent countries) and therefore became articulated on a global scale, that realizes the concept of coloniality of power. (p. 20)

This process, in turn, was key in legitimizing not only White people’s superiority but it also forced subordinate groups (colonized) to see themselves through the eyes of the colonizer, thus internalizing a distorted view of themselves and their place in the world.

Escobar (2004) stated that in contemporary times, the United States heads a military economic-ideological order or an imperial globalization [emphasis added]. Its hidden purpose is a global coloniality [emphasis added] that dominates and further marginalizes the knowledge and culture of subordinated groups. de Souza Silva (2004) called this “an imperialism without colonies” (p. 53). The author added that the most powerful countries have institutionalized uneven relations, thus creating an artificial type of “legitimate symmetry with the intent to dominate the other” (de Souza Silva, 2004, p. 54). de Souza Silva (2004) added:

…Our [Latin America] existence develops within a range of discourses and meta-discourses that co-exist within a hierarchical relation. Some are hegemonic discourses – as it is not the same the power of the discourse to the discourse of power. The discourse of power is centered in the relevance of the application and implications of its contents… It is [also] centered in particular interests - a hidden agenda of its representatives, but never the interests of the majority. That is, the interest of an elite powerful group... Its intent is to justify the injustice of domination. The power of the discourse seeks to denounce and destabilize the discourse of power. It is associated with the ideology and the oppressed groups’ utopia that seeks for a collective indignation. (p. 55)

Coloniality of Gender

According to Lugónes (2007), the Coloniality of Gender brings about sex/gender and heteropatriarchy into the construction of race for racialized people such as Black Indigenous. Gender was produced in Europe to control labour, depending on the division of public/private for whiteness (Icáza-Gárza, 2017). As an apparatus of colonization, the sex/gender system trussed gender to biology. It reorganized societies into hierarchies with men on top, hence leaving women with essentialized identities ranging from genderless to animals. Contemporary representations of Indigenous identities are often men. Indigenous Women are often understood as living in the margins, invisible and at the intersection of some of the most oppressive categories (Oliart, 2008). It has been argued that colonialism introduced a gender system that was not in place in pre-colonial societies (Oyěwùmí, 1997). In this hierarchy, Indigenous Women were raced and gendered in a way that reimagined them in the eyes of the colonizer. Their identities were placed lower on the Eurocentric hierarchy than Indigenous Men. The implementation of a race logic to create Abya Yala [American continent] followed the historical process of nation-building known as blanqueamiento [whitening] (Quijano, 2000; Wade, 1997), which meant to move Indigenous ways of knowing and being towards the ideals of whiteness and modernity. Such whitening processes were and are not only about the appearance of race but the internal and external ways of living that are better and more advanced [emphasis added] (Mígnolo, 2009).

Indigenous Women in Perú

Throughout colonialism and in modern/colonial times, violence and social and individual suffering have marked Latin America, including Perú. Under the facade of progress, colonizers used violence against Indigenous Peoples across the Americas to civilize [emphasis added] them (Heart et al., 2011). In contemporary times, maintaining language, culture, and identity are symbols of the resistance of Indigenous Peoples. In Perú, the ongoing coloniality challenges Indigenous Women’s identities differently than Indigenous Men. Gender inequality is still prevalent, impacting class, ethnicity and geographical location (Ames, 2013). The worth ascribed to Indigenous Women in Perú locates them in extreme areas of exclusion, and the remnants of colonialism continue to structure their lives (Carranza, 2021). The contours of inclusion and belonging in Perú are demarcated by sexism, racism, and classism. Indigenous Women face triple discrimination [emphasis added] based on being women, poor, and Indigenous (Francke, 1990; Quiñones, 2014). In the present day, Indigenous Women also face several challenges, such as loss of language and ancestral knowledge (Keihäs, 2014), violence (Hughes et al., 2015), lack of access to equitable health care (Bant & Girard, 2008); and exclusion from local and global spaces (Hooker, 2005). Indigenous Women in Perú encounter interlocking classifications of discrimination. These can be understood through cultural fundamentalism [emphasis added], which places people identifying as mestizo/as [mixed blood—Indigenous and Spanish] in opposition to Indigenous Peoples (D’Andrea, 2007). Radcliffe (2002) stated that Indigenous Women’s acknowledgement in legislation and political spaces is conditional and partial. Mestizo/as are perceived to be ethnically superior based on their perceived capacity to conform to the Peruvian mainstream society and their observance of Spanish colonial norms (De la Cadena, 2005; De la Cadena & Starn, 2010; Dueñas, 2010). This adherence to colonial notions of progress has rooted Indigenous Peoples in ahistorical identities, manifesting itself in specific ways to each locality. One key example in Perú is the marketing of Indigenous Women as fabled tourist attractions (i.e., the Uros People in Puno) (Carranza, 2021).

According to the Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indígenas de las Americas (2022), in Perú, colonialism continues through sexism, racism, discrimination, classism and exclusion of Indigenous voices and knowledge. These are part of the day-to-day existence and are tightly interwoven with gender-based violence against Indigenous Women. Boesten (2010) noted that in a patriarchal and racist society, public sectors do not consider the safety of Indigenous Women, especially those living in poverty, as an urgent matter. Although Indigenous Women bear the brunt of exclusion, they remain at the margins of efforts to address issues affecting them. Despite initiatives and commitments of government and NGOs, Indigenous Women identified that they are not represented in Indigeneity (Radcliffe, 2002).

Initial inquiries in this project, literature reviews and discussions with Indigenous Women leaders and organizations concluded that social work and human rights discourse have largely ignored the issues impacting the lives of Indigenous Women as well. This was accomplished by requiring a foregrounding of their identity as either Indigenous or Women (Carranza, 2021). This fragmentation led to an invisibilization of Indigenous Women’s experiences, knowledge and histories (Radcliffe, 2002). For the most part, the legacy of patriarchy embedded in coloniality has favoured men in advancing issues related to Indigenous identities (Del Alguila, 2016; Radcliffe, 2002). This has contributed to the lack of literature concerning how Indigenous Women navigate their day-to-day lives in nation-states that exist on stolen lands and continue to work toward their erasure (Hernández et al., 2023). This collaboration aimed to develop situated knowledge(s) to stimulate the changes Indigenous Women identified. The research was centred on their perceptions of exclusion and how this intermingled with national and international policies to maintain their underdevelopment [emphasis added]. One of these complexities is embedded in living in a formerly colonized space that remains curtailed by exploitation from countries in the North (i.e., mining) (Bebbington et al., 2009). The same forces have propelled International Social Work into a key modality. Development and modernity in contemporary times are constructs developed by the Global North and boasted forward in pursuit of advancement or a better life [emphasis added] (Hernández et al., 2023; Razack, 2002). Interventions are often imported from the Global North in attempts to remedy social problems and untangle people from underdevelopment [emphasis added] in the Global Economy (Carranza, 2021) and also to save [emphasis added] them from themselves.

Additionally, in modern times, “Perú was one of the countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of health and economic impacts and the erosion of the social gains achieved in the previous decade” (The World Bank, 2023, p. 10). Peruvians nowadays face even more poverty than before the pandemic, particularly in urban areas. This crisis has significantly exacerbated territorial inequalities and disparities related to access to public services and health, particularly by Indigenous Women and Afro-Peruvians (The World Bank, 2023).

The Project: Context

An invitation came to participate at the VII Meeting of Indigenous Women across the Americas in Guatemala City in 2015. The goal was to discuss the issues they faced across the Americas. Conversations with community leaders in both rural and urban spaces followed. Such grassroots conversations centered on how the international community, human rights advocates, social workers and the like were involved in creating emancipatory strategies that were inaccessible to Indigenous Women. Addressing ongoing coloniality based on race and gender from the ground up was urgently needed in the regions. Collaboration focused on centering Indigenous Women’s ancestral knowledge, resistance and development in the methods and methodology (Carranza, 2021). This meant a departure from validated methods in the Global North to ones that reflected the realities of Indigenous Women within the parameters of the funders and ethics. In these conversations, I was treated as a member of their community who brought knowledge. I spoke to the intersections of my identity-both the Nahuath-Pipil – Mayan descent- and Spanish, Mestizaje. What was taken up was my roots of Indigenousness and the hope, or expectation, that my connection to the Global North as a member of the diaspora would facilitate the development of the research process (Carranza, 2021).

Razack (2009) reminds us that when social workers who live in the diaspora return to the South, a potential hazard is focusing on unifying qualities and overestimating sameness. George et al. (2020) added that Indigenous knowledge is embodied in both physical and metaphysical ways. It resides in the spiritual realms of people’s lives. Harris (2022) noted that Indigenous knowledge encompasses various ways of knowing beyond the cognitive, including intuition and feelings. These ways of knowing opened the door; however, in this collaboration, my ethnicity, language, and heritage were an entry point to begin discussions. Openness about my own implication in the hegemony of the North and the possibilities, tensions and limits that this produces was a necessity (Carranza, 2016). Living in the North and working within the colonial University structures provided me access to a range of privileges that are inaccessible to Indigenous Women, specifically funding and the ability to plan and execute research work. It also meant that as a Professor, I had greater access to the social, political and economic spaces that impacted their lives. My involvement translated into having a voice and the potential for validity. While each of us lived within the stains of colonialism along different axes of power, it was those in the South who were the drivers of the decisions. It was not up to us in the North to determine which barriers to challenge or where the entry point was (Hernández et al., 2023). However, it was the role of those in the North to navigate and buffer the trappings of ISW. ISW has opened new possibilities (Wehbi et al., 2016) while simultaneously discounting knowledge that is lived and embodied by Indigenous Women.

When the questions or research problem are situated in discourses of development, there is little dialogue around who assesses the problem [emphasis added] or how these emerged. In these meetings, Indigenous Women wanted to open spaces of reflection and connection that could inform their collective organizing, thus enabling them to formulate, discuss, and define their position(s) and ways to bring about change. In partnership with social workers and other human rights defenders, horizontal dialogues were held (Carranza, 2021). It was determined that telling their stories was/is a powerful process that adheres to their oral traditions and would be the vehicle for their voices to be heard by the government, NGOs, and women’s organizations. It also freed them from the time commitment of organizing and alleviated some of the emotional labour. This story telling practice was rooted in their ancestral knowledge of sharing practices among Indigenous Women in Peru, brought forth into a contemporary setting.

Research Sites

Ayacucho

A district of the Southern Andes was the hub of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path guerrillas) insurgency in the 1980s. During this time, the local Indigenous populations were massively exposed to some of the most extreme forms of violence. It was concluded that of the total number of people killed or disappeared in this period, three-quarters of the victims were Indigenous Quechua speakers (CVR, 2003). Since the capture and killing of Shining Path leaders, political violence has decreased significantly in the area. However, the long-term implications of political violence and contemporary wars on local, Indigenous and displaced populations of this region are yet to be completely understood (CVR, 2003). It is important to note that all of the site’s participants had first or secondary lived experiences related to the atrocities the Sendero Luminoso caused in the region.

Additionally, between 1996–2000, the Peruvian government, under the pretense of upholding women’s rights and expanding access to family planning, launched an aggressive sterilization campaign, which disproportionately targeted Indigenous Peoples. In total, 272,028 persons were sterilized, of whom the majority were Indigenous Women residing in rural and poor areas (Ko, 2023). Apart from gender-based violence, financial vulnerability, and limited access to social services, climate change is another major challenge for Indigenous Women (Kanungo, 2023). For example, Indigenous Women in Ayacucho (Laramate district) have increasingly witnessed their crops wither in drought and rot due irregular rains. In recent years, excessive deforestation and oil extraction have continued to expand and threaten Indigenous Peoples’ livelihoods. As a result, the quantity and quality of agricultural production have been unpredictable, and children face higher malnutrition risks, increasing the vulnerability of local communities (Kuhnlein et al., 2013).

Puno

Puno is the home of the Aymara (who have a long history of resistance in the country) and Quechuas Peoples. Puno, bordering Bolivia, is located in the Southeastern part of Peru, known as the Altiplano, and is home to Lake Titicaca and the Uros. Puno is one of four departments with the highest rate in Peru. In 2023, 83.5% of the total population of the Department of Puno did not have access to essential services, including water, sewerage, electricity, mobile phones and the Internet (Gob. pe, 2023). The population of Puno has lower than average life expectancy (70.5 years) and access to improved water (66.9%). Puno also has higher than average poverty (32.4%) and illiteracy (10.5%). The City of Puno ranks 4th in multi-hazard risk: (i) multi-hazard exposure, (ii) very high vulnerability, and (iii) very low coping capacity. Puno’s exposure, vulnerability, and lack of coping capacity exceed the national averages. It is argued that Puno’s resilience is significantly lower than the national average, and its very low Resilience Score (R = 0.408) is due to its very high vulnerability and very low coping capacity (Peru: Regional Profiles, 2018).

Research Design

Designing qualitative research is a process utilized to prepare, implement, and evaluate an idea the researchers want to reveal about an issue (Tümen Akyildiz & Ahmed, 2021). Principles related to Community-Based-Participatory Research (CBPR) were considered appropriate for this study. CBPR’s main principle is joining with the community as full and equal partners in all phases of the research process. This makes it appealing for conducting research with historically vulnerable populations, as CBPR’s primary goal is to use research findings for social change. However, the CBPR approach is not without special challenges relating to ethical, cultural, and scientific issues (Holkup et al., 2004). To disrupt coloniality, community consultations were conducted to formulate the main research goal and the appropriate data-gathering methodology in four research sites (N = 80).

The research questions were driven by Indigenous Women. It was determined that the research’s goal was to understand how Indigenous Women experienced the barriers preventing full participation in decision-making spaces. Working alongside four rural and urban communities, women discussed the impacts of exclusion, their agency, and their resistance. The project worked with Indigenous Women’s groups. It facilitated the bringing together in new spaces to learn from each other and co-create knowledge, focusing on what transformation would look like (Carranza, 2021).

Indigenous communities in the Andes engage in relationships based on ayni or ongoing cycles of reciprocity to exchange comparable work or goods. Ayni is a core value that has served generations of Andean People since pre-Inka times (Rivera, personal communication, August 25, 2023). Furthermore, ayni is one of the basic principles of Andean political thought. It has overseen the Andes’ social, political, and economic life for centuries, if not millennia (Rivera, personal communication, August 25, 2023). Spalding (1984) stated that due to the imposition of Spanish rule, these norms underwent substantial changes in the colonial period, especially regarding reciprocal relationships between Indigenous Peoples and their leaders, the Andean lords, and between Indigenous People and the colonial state. Ayni, in fact, continues to find new expressions even in highly modernized communities and in city neighbourhoods where people from the Andes and their descendants have migrated (Drzewieniecki, 2003). Therefore, using art methods and talking circles seemed appropriate as it departed from the Eurocentric practices of data-gathering tools. Additionally, this research study also included in-depth interviews with service providers, policymakers, and community leaders. This paper discusses talking circles and art research as data research methodology with Indigenous Women.

Talking Circles

The consultations indicated that given the complex and multidimensional lives of Indigenous Women, Ñoqanchiq (Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú, 2012), a method of connectivity through culture to share knowledge(s) needed to be used for data collection. These spaces and learnings contributed to the agenda of knowledge as resistance, rooted in a complementary relationship between Indigenous and Global North ways of knowing (Carranza, 2021). According to Escobar (2020), the individual – community dichotomy does not exist in many collective societies. Instead, the person exists in relation to their ancestors, kin, communities, and the natural world. Life is thought of as a complex web of human and non-human (Escobar, 2020, p. 16). Segato (2022) added en el mundo-aldea [in the village’s world], the communal world is organized around reciprocal relationships. Nothing exists by itself. We inter-exist with everything on earth. “Everything in life is the result of processes of dependent co-arising or inter-being” (Segato, 2022, p. 19). The Indigenous paradigm encourages approaches that equip research participants from the marginalized population to produce an alternative narrative grounded in their embodied knowledge against the predominant master colonial discourses (Cahill, 2010).

Art-Based Methodologies (ABM)

Clover (2011) argued that women across the world have used the arts to “create knowledge, highlight experience, pose questions, or tackle problems” (p. 2). ABM embraces the promise of engagement, offering an inclusive and accessible manner to participate in meaningful knowledge [co] creation, collaboration (Fortin et al., 2015; Juandó-Prats, 2017), and translation. The use of art as a communication device in research has been found to allow for more spontaneous self-expression in a manner that evades constraints of language and ability (Blodgett et al., 2013; Schormans, 2004). Sinding et al. (2014) have claimed that the arts act as an emotional safety valve and a critical conduit to disclosing unconscious feelings and thoughts. The participants were recruited via posters and public talks. The círculos de conversación were used in two research sites: Ayacucho and Puno (10 participants per site; N = 20). The following summarizes the findings published elsewhere (Author in print). These are presented to illustrate how focusing on data collection as a method is conducive to a transformative process.

Ñoqanchiq “From our Own Selves”: We Are

In the círculos de conversación, women actively expressed a sense of their own image(s), the fluid assemblage of their identities (i.e., meanings, behaviours, clothing and perceptions of themselves and the world around them that made their divine feminine and indigenousness). Each began with a process that Indigenous Women referred to as Collecting Testimonies [emphasis added]. The dialogues were woven through the storytelling, and each group determined the themes.

Connected and in Our Community

Indigenous Women not only encompass various identities, they, too, are in relationship to each other and with all their connections. Many women expressed how together they learn to grow and develop new ways of being with other women and building community. As a collective, they wove everyone together within the community, drawing strength from one another.

Our Motherhood and Mothering

Motherhood is relational; in working for children in traditional languages, cultures and crafts, women felt their identities and continued history and, thus, looked forward to the future. In Mothering, women were nurturing children and themselves. They were building for and together within their family and community. They were passing down teaching traditions, such as crafts that were learned from their grandmothers, as a way of storytelling. Hence, remaining rooted in history, never allowing their own erasure. Stories were told with hands in knitting, clay, embroidery, weaving, cotton, painting, and ceramics. Art is history, present and future.

Weaving Our Past and Future

Indigenous languages are not a relic of the past. In the Learning Circles, the value of being bilingual was identified for Indigenous People and children. According to one woman in the study, “Bilingualism shows our strength”. Speaking in their language and in Spanish was an ongoing micro resistance in day-to-day spaces.

Talking Circles and Art-Based as a Qualitative Research Methodology

Setting the stage

Two Indigenous social workers local to the research site were hired. They were fluent in Spanish, Quechua, and/or Aymara. The choice of art was selected according to the region and information yielded by the consultations. Embroidery was chosen in Ayacucho, and knitting was chosen in Puno. Each group was closed. The participants’ ages oscillated between 18–89 years. The reason for the latter is that the results from the consultations also indicated significant concerns about the growing gap between the younger and older generations regarding ancestral knowledge, language and Indigenous identity. Two community Elders were hired to teach the specific craft at each locality. Each group met for eight weeks for about 3 h: 30 min of instruction, 15 min of break and two hours of discussion. Child care, snacks, transportation support, and craft materials were provided. Although the women knew of each other by occasionally sharing some spaces (i.e., children’s school, market, etc.), they did not know one another. Each week, their initial shyness transformed into trust, and the bonds between them deepened. The Indigenous Women met each week to discuss in-depth a specific theme: (i) motherhood, (ii) participation in political spaces, (iii) gender-based-violence, (iv) access to essential services (i.e., legal support, education and health), (v) Indigenous identity, (vi) leadership, (vii) el buen vivir [good living], (viii) conclusion and celebration. Their discussion took place via storytelling.

Initially, there was a perceived generational distance between the Elders and the young generation—particularly related to limited knowledge and skill in the specific Indigenous language and craft. Learning about their ancestors, language, and identity, sharing past and present struggles, and imagining a better future were among the woven themes across the various weekly topics of discussion. As the weeks progressed, the younger women expressed feeling ashamed for not knowing the language. Rather than being scolded, as they expected, the Elders in the group responded with understanding, kindness and compassion. An Elder stated, En el Perú, la vida de la mujer indígena es peor que la de un perro [In Perú, the life of Indigenous Women is worse than a dog]. She continued to elaborate that Indigenous Women are busy ‘surviving’ the multiple oppressions they face on their day-to-day. Similarly, another Elder talked about the epistemicidio [epistemicide], (i.e., the burning of their codices, killing of their ancestors, and the erasure attempts toward the cosmovision of Indigenous Peoples). She added that Indigenous Women throughout history had learned to rescatarse en el camino [rescue themselves on the road]. This signalled not only their agency but also their commitment to themselves.

As the participants’ hands learned and moved with the craft –conceptualizing, designing and operationalizing it with their chosen materials (i.e., wool and/or fabric) each of the Indigenous Women began to share their experiences interfacing with the discourse of the colonial difference, el blanqueamiento, which established to demarcate the blancura [whiteness] at the pinnacle of the humanity. They shared their injuries, past and present, due to such discourse. The participants’ stories signalled that they estaban viviendo sin permiao [living without permission], a metaphor to depict the fact that they had survived colonial genocide and, in the case of Ayacucho, modern genocide (the 1980s). Therefore, they understood that les tocaba pagar peaje [they had to pay the toll] to the state, a metaphor to describe their multiple oppressions, (i.e., low wages, prejudice and racism and the day-to-day pain) they endure due to the coloniality of power and coloniality of gender, where women living in the rural areas were both, most affected, but also experienced higher levels of exclusion.

Noteworthy is the fact that there was a significant level of emotionality. Through their emotions (i.e., wherein crying, laughing, sadness, and grieving together) they could hear and validate each other while co-existing together. Supporting and expressing their gratitude to each other became essential to the process. Without prompts, the Elders in the group expressed their spirituality by chanting icaros [Indigenous songs calling the spirits for help] for the specific occasion (i.e., healing.) The Elders in the group took on the responsibility of mentoring the younger generation about their spirituality, connection to the land, their ancestral knowledge, and their collective and historical memories. The talking circles became a much-needed generational healing space due to the epistemic injustice that occurred due to both colonialism and modernity. The researchers just accompanied the process and bore witness to the magnitude of their healing energy and power without outside interventions.

Discussion

This study was grounded in the Indigenous principles (i.e., respect and reciprocity) and Indigenous Women’s epistemic knowledge and its day-to-day manifestations. Connections across the land were made about the colonial contours of inclusion/exclusion and the absence of the state response to reparation. The use of the círculos de conversación coupled with art-based research methodology holds the promise to advance our understanding of how the chosen methodologies shape our findings and the participants’ lives. The arts enabled the participants to connect with and voice their emotions. Their commonality of day-to-day struggles with poverty, structural exclusion and political spaces, gender violence, loss of language, erosion of identity and intergenerational knowledge was evident. The use of their hands while discussing painful issues was conducive to the release of emotions while reconociendo el camino recorrido [recognizing the path travelled], wherein sorrow, frustration, anger, laughter, and grieving together, supporting one another, became essential to the process. The Elders in the group took on the responsibility of mentoring the younger generation about their spirituality, connection to the land, ancestral knowledge, and collective and historical memories. They held both—the collective and historical memory of el camino recorrido y sus liderezas caidas [path travelled and fallen leaders]. Together, they explored alternative forms of co-production of knowledge as epistemic resistance. This resistance included intense emotions. According to Denzin (2007), emotion relates to:

a lived, believed-in, situated, temporally embodied experience that radiates through a person’s stream of consciousness, is felt in and runs through his body, and, in the process of being lived, plunges the person and his associates into a wholly new and transformed reality – the reality of a world that is being constituted by the emotional experience. (p. 66)

Bericat (2016) added, “the study of emotions is never simple, because emotions are part of an active process and can undergo multiple and enigmatic transmutations that are both voluntary and involuntary, or conscious and unconscious” (p. 494). Annapoorni and Sadanandavalli (2020) posted, emotions are a complex psychological event involving (i) a physiological response(s), (ii) expressive reactions (i.e., facial expression, body posture, and/or vocalization), and (iii) a subjective experience. Scholars in the neuroscience field, such as Pert (1997), in her seminal work, stated that “the amygdala is the seat of all emotions, with peptides and other ligands as the biochemical of such, wherein the ligand-receptor network represents a second system” (p. 133). Pert (1997) added that “the first type of ligands comprises the neuro-transmitters—small molecules such as dopamine, histamine, serotonin, GABA” (p. 137), and so on.

Alshami (2019) stated that the heart is considered the source of emotions, desire, and wisdom. The author added, the heart has many ways: neurologically, biochemically, biophysically, and energetically. The vagus nerve, which is 80% centripetal, carries information from the heart and other internal organs to the brain. Signals from the “heart brain” redirect to the medulla, hypothalamus, thalamus, amygdala and the cerebral cortex. Thus, the heart sends more signals to the brain than vice versa. Therefore, as the women shared their experiences (cognition), the emotions stored in the brain (amygdala) and body (vagus nerve), verbalized while using both of their hands (both hemispheres—left and right) with the craft, enabled them to honour and release the stored emotions (energy), thus, bringing about healing, which transformed their reality while co-creating knowledge. Barbalet (1998) argued that the field of sociology has something to say about emotion for two reasons: (i) it seeks to explain social phenomena, and emotion is a social phenomenon, and (ii) emotion is necessary to explain the fundamentals of social behaviour. Hence, it can be argued that given the colonial injuries that colonialism and modernity have caused to Indigenous and other racialized groups across the globe, the incorporation of emotions in the field of Indigenous studies, that is, investigating and theorizing such, is not only ethical, it is also urgent and imperative. Understanding their suffering is incomplete if it does not include the participants’ emotions in the studies of oppressive structures and social, economic and relational processes. According to Burkitt (2002), “emotions are patterns of relationship [emphasis added] that link the self with its environment, fundamentally with others, or, in other words, with the social world” (p. 151). In the case of Indigenous Women, it is an oppressive world.

The weekly círculos de conversación allowed for the free flow of emotions week-to-week, with emotionality becoming a political instrument enabling people (researchers included) to feel and act in solidarity with the suffering of themselves and others. Acknowledging and rescuing their emotions not only became a significant aspect of their resistance to Occidental discourses. Their collective healing enabled them to transform their emotions into collective actions (i.e., anger, sorrow, empowerment) toward social justice and to defend their collective human rights—demonstrating their notrosidad [we-ness]. Hoffman (2018) described this as to be with [emphasis added]. In this case, a horizontal exchange opened space for the holding of emotions—creating territorial knowledge. Escobar (2020) calls this process “sentípensar con la tierra” [to think and feel with the earth] (p. 69). The círculos de conversación became a much-needed generational spiritual healing space due to the epistemic injustice and genocide done by colonialism and modernity. The círculos de conversación as research methods are a departure from extractivist research studies. These were grounded in relational ontology and reciprocity, supporting Indigenous epistemic knowledge, identity, and their authenticity.

Moreover, their commitment to each other and their desire to pass on their cosmovisión [worldview] to their children were also essential. The círculos de conversación also acted as a conduit for supporting the Indigenous Women’s endeavours of rescuing/protecting their language(s) and their dying art practices. Most importantly, the círculos de conversación provided the space to reduce the generational gap as generational knowledge transfer occurred. A sisterhood emerged between them and across localities, like a re-birthing in their own space and culture. Together, they reiterated their commitment to the custodianship of the land and ancient knowledge – buscando nuevos hilos para sanar sus dolores y para continuar tejiendo el conocimiento ancestral para con las nuevas generaciones and to resist el exterminio [looking for new threads to heal their suffering and to weave their ancestral knowledge across generations]. Thus, to resist extinction, Indigenous insurgency is at play.

The environmental, local and planetary crisis has a common basis: the development of an economy based on the unlimited extraction of natural resources and the unlimited exploitation of human beings. This model was developed through the homogenization of cultures, development and the world, first creating the colonial difference [emphasis added] and then suppressing all differences (Mígnolo, 2000). The Indigenous Peoples have been strategic in not forgetting their ontological spiritual self, not destroying their vision of el buen vivir, their own way of building and creating knowledge. Neither colonization, modernity, nor racism have achieved their erasure.

Implications

The use of Círculos de conversación [Talking circles] combined with art-based as a qualitative research methodology has some implications for the researchers. According to Çaparlar and Dönmez (2016), scientific research is carried out for the purpose of contributing to the betterment of society. Thus, the results produced are disseminated as new information with the intent to contribute to knowledge advancement. Those who carry out such studies are called researchers. Such inquiry could be carried out using quantitative or qualitative methodology. Each responding to its own rigor. Neutrality is part of this rigour. Objectivity is, too, part of the expectation (Ratner, 2002) and, I would add, a sanitized process of the participants’ emotions.

Researchers wishing to depart from positivistic and colonial processes and align themselves with the historical and contemporary marginalized groups must consider the inclusion of emotions as part of our research designs and data analysis. Researchers would need to reposition themselves in relation to occidental ethical principles that necessitate us to be neutral [emphasis added]. Thus, wrestle with the Global North’s notions of ethics that requires them to remain untouched and unmoved by human suffering. That is, keeping them silent, thus, implicated in maintaining colonial oppressions. This means that researchers need to develop their research design with intencionalidad [intention] to document and demonstrate alternative forms of knowledge production that contribute and accompany historically oppressed groups. Hence, to be with [emphasis added] and to acompañar [accompany] processes that contribute to the cosmogonic sustenance and political process, (i.e., Indigenous Peoples). Thus, to do so is a departure from the expected neutrality [emphasis added] of Eurocentric research and an invitation to academic insurgency.