2022:Submissions/Indigenous knowledge, epistemic decolonization and the power of images: a GLAM photographic journey into the world of sacred plants from the Peruvian Amazon region

From Wikimania


  • Language: English
  • Status: Live

Speaker(s)[edit source]

Carlo Brescia

Abstract[edit source]

Ikaros are magical songs used by traditional healers in the Amazon to summon spirits, activate an object or to weave the energetic threads of life of a patient. Ikaros are taught by teachers plants when healers learn their trade during prolonged periods of restricted diet and isolation. Some of these teacher plants are Ayahuasca, Tobacco and Coca.
All of the above is being researched at universities in Europe and the US today.
Through this short photographic journey, we propose a reflection on how knowledge is sometimes persecuted, imposed, expropriated and restituted.
WikiAccion Peru’s first GLAM project with Takiwasi Center in Tarapoto resulted in the liberation of more than 1200 images related to traditional medicine from Peru.

Learning Outcomes[edit source]

  • Participants will deepen their understandings on the impacts of colonization on non Western perspectives and the importance of epistemic decolonization through Wikipedia
  • Participants will receive an overview of some of the most recent topics from South American traditional medicine being researched
  • Through a photographic journey, participants will undergo a brief immersion on the world of Ayahuasca in the context of one of the most successful centers that treat drug addictions in the world

Biography[edit source]

I am from Peru, where I studied a degree in Industrial Engineering, and then two master’s degrees in Project Planning (UK) and Cultural Anthropology (Belgium). I am an environmental activist, ethnobotanist, documentary filmmaker and cultural manager. I started editing in Wikipedia in 2007. I am the co-leader of a wikimedia project in Peru: WikiAcción Perú.