As we continue to navigate the sea of uncertainty in this covid time, and protests continue, including those following the devastating explosion that wounded the heart of Beirut, and those prompted by the elections in Belarus - in this month’s newsletter we would like to share the spirit of Ayni, which in Andean cultures means to help each other in reciprocity. In Ayni those in need will receive help from the community, or Ayllu, whose members are always aware of each other’s necessities and ready to  support. This is part of what in the Andes our ancestors built as Khuyapayaq Aylluchakuy, or culture of care, love and compassion.

In the Ecoversities Alliance we have been committed to make space and support what our friends from South America cultivate as Buen Vivir, centering around a spirit of comunalidad and interdependence, focusing on relationality as a way to connect with each other and all the other elements, including land and ancestors, the non living or the more than human.

We consider it extremely important to learn from, with and in solidarity with these different ways of being, knowing, doing and relating that center around the protection of life in all its forms. Our next Ecoverstea zoom call, on Sunday, August 23rdth at 11 am, part of the Learning with Covid series curated by Alessandra Pomarico, Udi Mandel with the precious collaboration of Gerardo Amaro - we are bringing attention to the knowledge and wisdom of Indigenous communities suffering systemic oppression for more than 500 years in a never interrupted violence through colonization, racialization, forced assimilation, robbery of land and sacred territories, erasure of language, cultures and of their entire world view. In Re- Worlding the world: Indigenous Resilience, Re-xistance and Regeneration, we will be in conversation with members of Indigenous communities in our network: Erika Candelaria Hernandez Aragón (Mexico), Verónica Sacta Campos (Equador), Madan Meena (India), and Giovanna Tabilo Jara (Chile), moderated by Ecoversties’ steering committee member Ku Kahakalau (Hawa’ii). The conversation hopes to bring light not only to the resilience and resistance ‘against’ systems of oppression, but also Indigenous people’s capacity to repair, heal, protect and regenerate life, worlding new worlds, or a world where many worlds can fit, as the Zapatistas say.

Bits on our guests:

Erika Candelaria Hernandez Aragón having Zapoteco origins from the coastal region of Oaxaca, she is a comunera and activist for the permanence of the commons in the coffee plantations in the region. 

Verónica Sacta Campos, Ecuadorian, descendant of the Cañari-Inca. She holds the message of Buen Vivir from the Andean cosmovision and is a passionate defender and guardian of the Pachamama. 

Madan Meena, visual artist and researcher. He has worked extensively with artists and craftspersons from local communities in Rajasthan and Gujarat. His doctoral dissertation focused on wall paintings done by the Meena women, which was exhibited across the country and abroad. He has published two books on the subject: Joy of Creativity and Nurturing Walls.

Giovanna Tabilo Jara, is a Mapuche medicine woman, one of the activists and speaker person supporting the spiritual leader Machi Celestino Cordova and other 17 Mapuche political prisoners on hunger strike since 3 months to demand recognition of Indigenous people and their rights, respect of their ancestral lands, reacting against systemic racism, discrimination and violence, as the recent attacks from armed right wing extremists, and police repression of protesters in the new wave of mobilization.