Screening of film Indexed Beings (Helen Knowles, 2024)

Indexed Beings (2024, 42mins) centres on the re-enactment of a dispute that took place in the Ethno-Botanical Herbarium of Piedemonte, Mocoa, Putumayo, Colombia. The dispute, recounted by Jorge Contreras, chief botanist, occurred when a local taita (shaman) arrived in the lab, angry and concerned about the methodologies of collecting plant-specimens and keeping them on shelves in a scientific laboratory. Contreras had been moved to defend his Western knowledge system of collecting plants as an important tool in the defence of the territory. This perspective was contested over the course of an afternoon, whereby the taita laid out his own indigenous view of plants as autonomous, sentient entities and the forest as intelligent, sacred, connected and therefore un-collectable.

Soraida Chindoy is an Indigenous guardian and activist and will speak about her work defending the  Putumayo mountains. The territory is also home to 56 lagoons considered sacred by the Indigenous people and represents the meeting point between the Amazon rainforest and the Andes. This area is currently endangered by the establishment of a copper mine. 

Kausagkamalla: mientras vivamos (as long as we live) is a documentary by Soraida Chindoy and Karoline Pelikan about Chindoy's life and work, which will premiere in 2026. Deborah Martin (UCL Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies) is the film's producer and will give a short talk on the project.

All are welcome!