Indigenous women represent a historical void as environmental builders. They have been ignored as knowers, knowledge producers and environmental decision makers. Eurocentric and Nationalist paradigms — the canon — has given form to the contents of Mexican architectural, environmental, and urban issues ignoring collectivity, Indigenous cosmology, complementary gender roles and culture-nature linkages between the environment and the human as foundational for the creation of habitable, productive, and public spaces.
During the history of Indigenous communities, women have been those holding the "cultural understanding of one's responsibilities to the Earth's living, non-living, and spiritual beings and natural interdependent collectives" (McGregor 2008, p.606). Despite their role as meaningful decision makers in environmental and land management issues, they are absent in meaningful planning processes. "Hilando el Territorio" proposes to explore the character of this nature-culture relationship, considering the environmental understanding through Indigenous foundational metaphores and their meanings, as well as body-landscape connections having their manifestations in pictorical and spatial cartographies.
Hence, "Hilando el Territorio" aims to translate complex concepts into a language that can be understood by a wider audience, to expose the importance of this female environmental knowledge in times of our environmental crisis and climate change.One of the main goals of "Hilando el Territorio" is to empower indigenous and rural women who have witnessed the transformation and destruction of their communities and nature. The project offers community workshops, to explore the surviving environmental knowledge, related to the land, water, vegetation and climate.
These workshops not only provide a creative outlet for women, but they also serve as a space for dialogue and exchange of ideas. Through these workshops, participants can learn about the importance of eg. landscape cartography and how it can be used as a tool for understanding and advocating for their communities. "Hilando el Territorio" provides spatial analysis and community intelligence services to facilitate further understanding of landscape, natural resources and its relationship with the Indigenous peoples.
By analyzing the spatial data and community input, "Hilando el Territorio" is able to create visual representations that capture the essence of the cultural, social, urban and natural environment, seen from Indigenous women's perspective.If you're interested in exploring the intersectionality between nature, culture and community developoment from Indigenous women's scope, "Hilando el Territorio" is a great example to follow. Here are a few tips to get started:
1. Learn about the history, social metaphores, relationship between culture and nature, and significance of cartography. Understanding the role of cartography in shaping our understanding of the world, especially considering systems of colonial power, and how Indeganous women were considered in them.
2. Study different forms of visual and non-visual expressions as manifestations of environmental messages.
3. Engage with your community: Different expressive tools are powerful vehicles to reach community engagement. Take the time to listen to the stories and experiences of your community and find ways to incorporate them into your work.
4. Collaborate with others: Like "Hilando el Territorio," collaboration can lead to innovative and impactful projects. Seek out opportunities to work with others who have different perspectives and expertise.By exploring the possibilites of intersectionalities, we can create projects that not only capture the beauty of our world but also give voice to those who have been marginalized, and transmit messages about the environmental problematics the humanity is facing. "Hilando el Territorio" is a shining example of intersectional initiatives as tools for empowerment and social change.
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