Exploring the Potential and Impact of Indigenous Female Community Participation and Leadership in Peru
Women play a fundamental role in the preservation of biodiversity and ancestral knowledge, and the management and defence of Amazonian land and water. However, these contributions often go unrecognised.
The Women of Influence project – a partnership between UEA, PUCP, ONAMIAP and OMIAASEC - highlights the importance for Indigenous women to participate actively and be supported with the tools to exercise influence in their communities.
Working alongside a group of young Indigenous women in the Peruvian Amazon region of Junín, this project has sought to understand and make visible the work that these women have undertaken as community members and future leaders. Through participatory work, we are working to support their ambitions, expand further their networks, enhance their visibility and probe their spheres of influence in the context of environment, social, cultural and political risk.
The Women of Influence team is formed by women researchers, cultural producers and activists based at the University of East Anglia (UEA), the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), and the Organisation for Indigenous Women of the Central Selva region of Peru (OMIAASEC). We are also grateful for the support and expert input from the creative women of EmpoderArte and the students of the SAAM (Support for Access to Audiovisual Media) project and the Internship Team at UEA.
This interdisciplinary, transnational team of women is united in our passion for the role of women as leaders and influencers in the context of the climate emergency and of environmental humanities and social sciences. We bring skills, experience and understandings from media production and design, anthropology, development and cultural studies. Most importantly we are informed and inspired by the lived experiences, ambitions and needs of the young members of our project partners, OMIAASEC.
This project is funded by the British Academy’s Humanities and Social Sciences Tackling Global Challenges Programme, supported under the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund; also by the University of East Anglia’s Impact Fund, Arts and Humanities International Fund, the International Science Partnership Fund, and the AHRC’s Impact and Innovation Account.
OUR TEAM
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Prof. Sarah Barrow
Professor of Cinema at the University of East Anglia, UK. She has worked at cinemas and film festivals, and has published on the connections between cinema, state and society in Peru. Her research has analysed the ecology of cinema production, the role of film festivals in Peru, and the work of various Peruvian filmmakers. Sarah is Principal Investigator of the British Academy funded project, Women of Influence, working in collaboration with colleagues and hermanas at PUCP, ONAMIAP and OMIAASEC.
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Prof. Maria Eugenia Ulfe
Peruvian anthropologist, professor, and researcher at the department of Social Sciences at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). She holds a PhD in Human Sciences/Anthropology at the George Washington University (Washington DC, 2005), and she is Honorary Professor in the School of Arts, Media, and American Studies at the University of East Anglia. Among her topics of research are Anthropology of the State, politics, and arts focused on memory studies, gender, ethnicity, and violence, and experimental visual ethnography.
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Prof. Eylem Atakav
Professor of Film, Gender and Public Engagement at the University of East Anglia where she teaches courses on women and world cinema; gender and Middle Eastern media; and documentary. She is the director of Growing Up Married – an internationally acclaimed documentary about forced marriage and child brides in Turkey; and co-director of Lifeline, a new documentary that reveals the reality of working in the frontline of the domestic abuse sector in the UK during the pandemic.
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Karoline Pelikan
Documentary filmmaker and cultural manager. Her films, awarded by the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and international cultural organisations, focus on intimate portraits, gender violence and human rights and were screened at major film festivals. Karoline is founder of EmpoderArte, a collective of women that creates safe audiovisual spaces for women and non-binary artists across Peru. She teaches film workshops for women, and creates distribution opportunities for underrepresented communities and filmmakers.
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Roxana Vergara
Lawyer and Master in anthropology and researcher at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). Roxana has always worked with women and their communities fighting against violence and for social justice. Currently, she is also working on the development of projects on intercultural justice and violence against rural and indigenous women. Roxana thinks of interdisciplinary work as a tool to contribute to change and social justice through local experiences and knowledge.
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Victoria Chicmana
Victoria Del Pilar Chicmana Zapata is a Peruvian Quechua sociologist based in Chanchamayo - Perú. She is interested in collaborative research with Indigenous people in the fields of food security, health and social movements.
OUR HERMANAS
‘Hermana’ is Spanish for ‘sister’. It is the term used by members of OMIAASEC, of any age, to refer to each other and indicates a horizontal relationship of respect, love, solidarity. It helps to bind the sense of community of the group, a sense of belonging. It suggests a connection built on shared histories, cultures and understanding as well as a shared vision of a future where women are accepted as leaders and full participants in their community’s organisation.
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Stefhani
My name is Stefhani Poma Martínez, I am Asháninka and I come from the Bajo Kimiriki community in the Pichanaki district of the Chanchamayo province. The risk of losing our ancestral knowledge, including our language, concerns me a lot. We need to unite to make our voices heard and make a positive influence.
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Yanelia
Aviro naka nopayta Yanelia Quinchuvia noponia Churingaveni. Hello! My name is Yanelia Quinchuvia, I come from the native Churingaveni community. In the workshops that we have had we have learned and talked about the problems in our community. I want to make films about my community, whether it is talking about ancestral life, lack of rain and water and things that happen in everyday life of the community.
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Karen Pamela
I’m from the Asháninka community. I enjoy spending time with my community, with the older members, and learning from them by listening to their stories. I do worry about our land and our identity, since there is a state-driven agenda for those to be lost, for our land to be sold or carved up, and for opportunities for future generations to disappear. It is paramount for our organisations (OMIAASEC and ONAMIAP) to address these challenges at these times; it’s so important to continue strengthening our youth and adolescents by going out to our communities. The threat of losing our ancestral knowledge worries me greatly.
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Abigail
My name is Abigail Hoyos López, I am Asháninka and I come from Bajo Aldea in the Perené district of the Chanchamayo province. I worry about lack of access to water for my community and am concerned when I see how it is wasted by people living in the towns.
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Kely
Hello, my name is Kely Quicha Martinez. I’m Asháninka and incredibly proud of my roots. I like to interact with nature, to be near and inside it.
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Wenddy
My name is Wenddy de la Cruz Fernandez and I’m Asháninka. I enjoy participating in workshops and making handicrafts (zaratos). I’m worried that my community San Pascual is being badly affected by contamination of the river and by a lack of fish, caused by rubbish left by visitors.
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Edith Carolin
My name is Edith Carolin (Karol), I am Asháninka and I come from Impitato Cascada in the Pichanaki district of the Chanchamayo province. I worry about the bad effects on our local food and water caused by contamination. I want to use my role to draw attention to this, including via our short film, and how we can make things better if we work together.
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Anyeli
My name is Anyely Tello Martinez. I’m Asháninka. I like to dance and do my homework. I’m worried that my community Waypankuni lacks water and that there’s a lot of contamination in the rivers.
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Luna
Hello! My name is Luna Buleje, I am Asháninka and I come from the Waypancuni community in the Pichanaki district of the Chanchamayo province. I love being in nature even though I now live mostly in the town. I worry about losing the forest which leads to lack of water and the food that is important to our communities.
OUR PARTNERS IN JUNÍN
ONAMIAP
ONAMIAP is a national organisation of Andean and Amazonian indigenous women in Peru who are working for full exercise of their individual rights as women and of their collective rights as indigenous peoples. Based on principles of respect and recognition of diversity, the organisation implements actions aimed at strengthening the grassroots organisations, raising awareness of their demands and influencing the public agenda in order to gain representative spaces at a local, regional, national and international level.
OMIAASEC
The Organización de Mujeres Indígenas Amazónicas Asháninkas de la Selva Central (Organization of Ashaninka Indigenous Women of the Central Amazon) is a women-led organization based in the Junín and Pasco regions of the Central Amazon of Peru. The organization’s activities focus on the development of leadership capacities (for example, public speaking) and community participation, learning about ancestral knowledge and sharing understandings of Indigenous women’s rights from historical and contemporary perspectives. An important goal of the organisation is to increase representation by women as community leaders and thereby strengthen the value of their contribution to society.