"The Power of Media and Storytelling for Territorial Struggles": An Interview and Online Gallery with Misha Vallejo
We sat down with photographer and artist Misha Vallejo to know more about the role of audio-visual storytellers in environmental justice struggles. His experience accompanying the Sarayaku community in Ecuador is a fascinating case for the use of digital tools to defend indigenous land.
Misha Vallejo is an audio-visual storyteller whose work lies at the border between documentary production and artistic creation. Freelance photographer since 2010, he was a member of the photography collective Runa Photos. His many awards include the Prince Claus and Goethe Institute Fund for Artistic Responses to Environmental Change, the Ecuadorian Photojournalism for Piece Award, and the National Art Prize Mariano Aguilera. He created Secret Sarayaku, an interactive multi-media project showing how the indigenous Sarayaku community in Ecuador utilizes media and technological tools for their struggle. Watch some of the photographs from this project in the digital gallery below.
CLAMOR: Misha, your multi-media project Secret Sarayaku focuses on the indigenous Sarayaku community in Ecuador. How did you become interested in this community?
Misha: My first encounter with the Sarayaku community was in 2015, for activist reasons. The Sarayaku community won a law suit against the Ecuadorian government in 2012, after public authorities had entered the indigenous territory to explore for new oil fields. The Sarayaku community won because the Constitution of Ecuador states that the exploitation of natural resources requires the permission of the people living on this land. In 2015, I applied for funding for an art project to explore the community from an activist lens: how could such a small community win a lawsuit against the government? How could they gain so much attention and keep so strong?
CLAMOR: And what did you discover?
Misha: The Sarayaku have this vision of Kawsak Sacha, which translates to the “Living Forest”. It means that everything in the forest is alive, has a spirit, and is interconnected with all other entities. A damage to one of these entities will thus impact entire eco-systems.
The Kawsak Sacha philosophy stems from the ancestors and was passed from generation to generation. It was striking to see that this ancestral knowledge is now shared via Facebook and Instagram. They have their own very popular Sarayaku Memes Page. For me, this was strange and interesting. Therefore, I focused my project on two aspects inside the community: the mythological dimension, and the communication via technology and media.
CLAMOR: This seems like an interesting combination. How are these digital tools used inside the community?
“When you are from the city and visit Sarayaku for the first time…” Credits to @MemesSarayaku.
Misha: It is important to clarify that digital communication works two-ways. The community can express their messages into the world, but they also receive input from the outside, mostly Western, world. Then you sometimes see young people in the community listening to Reggaeton on their phones, in the middle of the jungle. This is neither bad nor good. This is the way things are.
The most important part is that the community deliberately chose to use technologies and media. It was a very conscious decision. They also chose to participate in COP26, and to document their presence during the climate negotiations. Since they got to understand that digital presence is a tool that they could use in their struggles (and these struggles often decide about the faith of their livelihoods), they saw a form of self-determination in the internet. By using social media, they experience how the government has more and more difficulties to make them disappear. The Sarayaku members are very active, specifically cyber-active.
CLAMOR: You created several artistic works from this project. Could you guide us through the creative process of Secret Sarayaku?
“By using social media, the community members experience how the government has more and more difficulties to make them disappear.”
Misha: Secret Sarayaku initially started out as a photographic project, but very soon I realized that the story cannot just be told via pictures. I then included audio field recordings, interviews and videos. This way I gathered as much material as possible, but was not sure how to use it. For a documentary movie, the material was not journalistic enough. It was artistic material. One day, Jose Miguel Santi, the leader of the communications department at Sarayaku went up to me and said: “Why could you not use the internet? It would reflect what we are using here. This way we communicate and help each other!”. Then I started Secret Sarayaku as a web platform, which is a very interactive online documentary.
The website is educational. It has interviews, statistics and some text, partly written by the community members themselves. It is easy to get lost in this website. I like when people get lost. It reminds me of the jungle: you never know where you are on this platform but you can trace back how you got there. It is not a linear narrative. That is why it is a “virtual jungle”.
Then, there is the exhibition resulting from this project which attracts individuals from the art world. Unlike the web platform, the exhibition requires physical space to showcase the work, and people´s interactions with the community are mediated via this space.
Finally, there is the photo book, which is both an object and archive and could therefore exist over time, independent from space.
CLAMOR: What has audio-visual storytelling done to advance the Sarayaku agenda?
Misha: The Sarayaku community did not only make use of the internet. They also utilized videos for their activism and protection of the territory. There is an indigenous filmmaker called Eriberto Gualinga who got a VHS video camera back in the 2000s and documented the violence committed by the military and oil corporations against the Sarayaku community. His film won an award with National Geographic and functioned as evidence in the lawsuit. Via this film, many community members realized the power of media and storytelling for their territorial struggles.
My intention as a storyteller was then to spread their message while accepting that it is my subjective view on them. It is important to say that I am not the only storyteller in this project. I would even say it is not even entirely my project, but one by the people of Sarayaku. All the field recordings and interviews were conducted by Jose Miguel Santi, from the communications department. Many of the drawings in the book were made by Silvia Guatatuca. She paints beautiful basins and I had to include them. Further, the entire text in the book was written by the community or adopted from the Kawsak Sacha declaration. The whole project is therefore a form of participatory storytelling and benefits from the plurality of perspectives.
CLAMOR: And how is their storytelling different from the Western approach?
Misha: Storytelling within the community is very different than in the Western world. We are used to stories that start slowly, then become more exciting, reach their climax and end with a surprise. This is what I consider linear storytelling. The Sarayaku community has more circular storytelling. They do not really have a climax, but sustain the level of arousal. The end of a story is therefore always the beginning of a new story. As I started reflect more on the idea of circularity, I decided to compose this project like the different stages of life, with the death connecting to birth again.
CLAMOR: Are there also voices inside the community that criticize the use of modern technology?
Misha: Yes, to some degree. One skeptical point of view is that social media is too much about the self, which does not match the communal worldview of the Sarayaku. Then, social media is clearly a Western tool, and while they successfully use this tool to fight for their rights, some community members also believe the West permeates into indigenous ways of living. This is often a generational conflict, similar to anywhere else in the world.
CLAMOR: You earlier said that activist interest brought you into the community. Yet, you are working as an artist most of your time. Could you separate art from activism in your personal work?
“If, for example, indigenous communities in Finland have similar problems with mining corporations, they could have a look at Sarayaku to see how to strategize and communicate to the world.”
Misha: There is a blurred line between activism and art in this project. I think the community brings in the activism side of the project. They share their philosophy of life, how they see technology, or how they relate to non-human beings in the forests. My perspective was the artistic one. I am Ecuadorian, but still a foreigner to the community. There was a lot of collaboration, and not just me as an artist explaining things.
Another activist aspect of this project is that finishing it was not the main goal. Of course, there are exhibitions, the website and the book. However, what I consider even more important about this project is to spread the word about it. Talking to universities, fellow artists, family or school kids. Many photographers have their pictures in an exhibition and think “that´s it!”. I think the storytelling should not stop there but continue with engagement with the community and audiences.
MIsha Vallejo is one of Ecuador´s rising artists and photographers.
CLAMOR: Talking about community, there are similar indigenous movements blending technology with traditional knowledge. Under the motto of Homecoming, young indigenous individuals advocate to return to the communities after studying in the city. This helps the communities to use both metropolitan and rural knowledge and to adapt to climate change and increasing food insecurity.
Misha: This happened in Sarayaku, too. Many members studied in Quito, and then returned to the community. One person, for example, is a biologist, who is currently counting and analyzing the animal populations in the territory via wildlife cameras. Last time I was there, the communications department bought a drone to surveil their territory and take pictures of the landscape. Through an NGO, they received satellite phones to go on expeditions. So yes, there is some form of co-learning with the outside world, but I have to emphasize again: it is the community´s decision. They realize that those tools are available, not too expensive, and empower their activist strategies.
Eventually the digital presence of the Sarayaku does not only demonstrate the struggles of the community and how they live, but clearly shows some successful strategies in environmental justice conflicts. If, for example, indigenous communities in Finland have similar problems with mining corporations, they could have a look at Sarayaku to see how to strategize and communicate to the world.
CLAMOR: What are some future projects that you are working on?
Misha: In 2022, I will exhibit Secret Sarayaku at the Biennale für Aktuelle Fotografie in Mannheim, Germany and at the Photography Festival Melbourne. Besides, I started working on a movie four years ago. It is about the discrimination experienced by my grandmother who has indigenous roots. The film will address how memories, parents and photography can build an identity- but this project will take a bit longer.
Misha´s personal website can be found here: https://www.mishavallejo.com/
Misha´s Instagram: @MishaVallejo
Misha´s Twitter: @MishaVallejo
The website for Secret Sarayaku can be found here: https://secretsarayaku.net/
The interview was conducted by Beatriz Rodriguez-Labajos and Julian Willming as part of the CLAMOR interview series with artists, activists and other experts at the intersection of art and activsm.