Collaborations

Pawkar Peguche 2024

An large group of members of an indigenous community walking down the street in traditional dress

Pawkar Raymi stands as one of the foremost Indigenous celebrations in the Otavalo region, celebrated in Kichwa communities from February to early March.

In the community of Peguche, Pawkar Raymi features cultural celebrations, sports competitions, and music concerts, attracting tens of thousands of attendees, including many who live abroad.

Recognised as Ecuador's intangible heritage by the National Ministry of Culture and Heritage and the National Institute of Cultural Heritage, it has been a vital expression of Indigenous Kichwa identity and culture for almost three decades.

A group of people at an open-air concert

Our collaboration with the 2024 organising committee facilitated funding for live broadcasts on social media of concerts featuring Andean musical genres, and the ‘mundialito’ indigenous football championship, aligning with our project's focus on digital engagement among young Indigenous Kichwa individuals with cultural content.

Highlights of Pawkar Peguche 2024 included the Noche Internacional (10 February 2024), featuring musical performances by Kichwa artists based in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Belgium, drawing approximately 16,500 in-person attendees and 55,000 online viewers, and the Runakay (11 February 2024), which opened with a ritual cleansing ceremony and required that attendees arrive in ethnic dress to enjoy the music of bands originating in Peguche.

Diana Burga

An interview with a man and woman in the street

Content creator Diana Burga (@dianiz_otavalo) began posting to social media platforms when she was 16. She found that her audience grew quickly, and she soon began to approach content creation with a view to cultivating that audience.

Today, Diana’s posts include promotions for local businesses in Otavalo, promotions of cultural events around the region, and candid glimpses of her everyday life.

In February 2024, field researcher Joe Quick accompanied Diana and her informal film team to interview attendees at the Runakay gala concert regarding the cultural significance of the event and the requirement that attendees arrive in their best indigenous attire. Among those Diana interviewed was David Maigua (@draimonsito), another research participant in our project.

All photos by Joe Quick.

Nuevos imaginarios del sur

“Nuevos imaginarios del sur” (New Imaginaries from the South) was a series of cultural events featuring young Mapuche artists that took place in Bariloche, Argentina, between 24 and 28 April 2024. The initiative comprised two related components: 1) a cultural evening (varieté) featuring music, dance, and poetry at the auditorium of Radio Nacional Bariloche, and 2) a collaborative theatre workshop culminating in a public performance.

The cultural evening on 26 April 2024 featured María Lew, a Mapuche-Tehuelche drag queen; singer-songwriters Maxi Flores and Pukka Malen (who are also members of the rock bands Tralkan Lef and Tsunami Alerta, respectively); Ayliñ Wagvlen, a dancer and choreographer; and the female music group Weway. The event was produced by Laura Kropff, Vanesa Nicolini, Gabriela Salamida, and the radio’s technical team.

Parallel to this, throughout the week, these young Mapuche artists worked with undergraduate drama students from the universities of Río Negro (Argentina) and Concepción (Chile) in a theatre workshop organised and led by the Mapuche theatre collective El Katango and the Chilean street theatre group La Patriótico Interesante. Through a series of guided creative exercises and discussions, participants developed an original theatrical performance exploring themes of intercultural communication, racism, and identity. The workshop culminated in a free public performance for a full audience on 28 April. You can see the whole performance and a summary here.

By bridging Indigenous and urban artistic practices, fostering Argentine-Chilean collaboration (reflecting the Mapuche ancestral territory of Wallmapu), and confronting themes of displacement and cultural erasure (particularly relevant to a city like Bariloche, which is at the centre of disputes over territory and Indigenous rights), the event challenged stereotypes and discrimination while centring young Mapuche voices. The initiative received official recognition as being “Of cultural interest to the city” from the municipal council.

Resonant Territories: Sounds of Shared Latin America

“Resonant Territories: Sounds of Shared Latin America” was an event co-organised with the radio programme Somos con Cecilia Ramos and the Cervantes Institute on 23 February 2025. The evening featured Mapuche singer-songwriter Pukka Malen and the Kichwa hip hop group Runa Rap. Unfortunately, visa applications for two of Runa Rap's four members were inexplicably refused by the British government despite official letters from the University of Manchester confirming their participation in our event with all expenses covered. This reflects the intrinsically discriminatory nature of the visa system in the UK and the ongoing barriers faced by Indigenous and Latin American artists seeking to share their culture with British audiences.

Despite these setbacks, the evening proceeded successfully to a full house, also featuring performances by Luma, a Liverpool-based ensemble led by Chilean brothers Francisco and Óscar Carrasco, and Las Warmis, a dance collective comprised of Indigenous Ecuadorian women based in London. The event also featured Rayen Rupayan from the Mapuche youth organisation Wechekeche Ka Itrofillmongen, who raised awareness about the disappearance of Indigenous activist Julia Chuñil in November 2024. The free event provided British audiences with a rare opportunity to experience the richness and diversity of contemporary Indigenous Latin American art whilst also highlighting urgent social justice and Indigenous rights issues.