Indigenous By/With Books and Films from Abya Yala

View of the Andes from the film Wiñaypacha = Eternity in Aymara language by the late Aymara film director Óscar Catacora.

This guide connects people to films, video and works of literature (fiction and non-fiction) created by/with Indigenous authors and film directors, as well as through collaborations. The prepositions "by/with" (coined by my colleague Javier Muñoz-Díaz), a concept expanded in the book Indigenous materials in libraries and the curriculum: Latin American and Latinx sources, acknowledge that artistic expressions one considers Indigenous may be created solely by an Indigenous person or be the outcome of collaborations with colectivos and people who do not define themselves as Indigenous.

• Many of the books listed in this guide are bilingual, trilingual, and even quadrilingual editions in an Indigenous language, Spanish, English, and French. Users of this guide will find the language information and other bibliographic data when hovering over the respective title. 
• To view the films, follow the links. The system will require credentials when these audiovisual materials are licensed for educational use. Members of the public will be able to access films marked as "open access."
  • This guide uses terminology that acknowledges the identity of the creator or the geographic region where a film or video was created, such as Quechua cinema, for example.
  • The term realizador refers to film directors or filmmakers who work independently or with a production company. Realizadores may also perform film production work.

You are welcome to contact me if you have any questions or are interested in researching any topic related to Latin American indigenous languages and cultures. You can also recommend purchases for materials under the creative control of by/with Indigenous people and collaborations from Latin American regions.

Keywords and related terms of a given topic help you find information. The graphic below shows some keywords related Indigenous people from Abya Yala. When you are searching, you can use these terms, combine them, or find your own terms related to a topic. The keywords in the graphic are: cosmovision, indigenous knowledge, spirituality, indigenous rights, cultural practices, ancestral ties to the land, marginalization, indigeneity and pachamama.

These links will take you to our catalog OneSearch. When you open any of these links, you can continue your search by selecting the best filter for your search (left of your screen). With the filters you can select a genre, a region, a language, and a content type (book/eBook, journal article...)

Quechua poetry

Aymara poetry 

Guarani poetry

Mapuche poetry

Nahuatl poetry

Mayan poetry

Zapotec poetry

Quechua literature

Aymara literature

Guarani literature

Mapuche literature

Nahautl literature

Maya literature

Zapotec literature

Colectivos are groups of people working together under the principle of reciprocity and collective work as a means to restructure knowledge creation, authorship, and attribution. The work product (creation and decision-making) of a colectivo is not credited to a single person, but to the collective, moving away from a hierarchical approach to knowledge creation and attribution. Colectivos are also characterized by offering film training through workshops and informal educational settings, especially to communities that lack access to a film school. 

Several films display Latin American indigenous languages, topics on Andean issues, indigenous identity, indigenous knowledge, marginalization, preservation of cultural and natural heritage, the role of indigenous women, capitalism, expropriation, and appropriation, among others. 

Although the topics of these films are intertwined throughout the films on many occasions, they offer you a glance into subjects such as interculturality, intercultural dialog, indigeneity,  genocide, abuse, marginalization, poverty, suicide, socio-economic gaps, historical wrongs, and inequality.

Public domain image of machi women. The machi is a healer and a religious leader for the Mapuche people. 

Weaving is a part of different indigenous people's cultures. Generally, this artisanal activity is learned during childhood where girls knit their first works. For this cultural activity women use alpaca or sheep wool. The artistic designs express their cosmovisión (worldview) believes and assert their indigenous identity forged since pre-Columbian times.

• See Textilería Aymara to learn more about weaving in the Aymara culture.
• See La Tradición Textil Mapuche

Photograph used under the Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 2.0.

Academic archives collect, preserve, and provide access to primarily unique, unpublished primary source materials, in order to preserve institutional and cultural memory.  These materials may include personal papers, organizational records, photographs, moving images, sound recordings, ephemera, or other one-of-a-kind items.  The collections of academic archives usually document the history of the university or college, as well as other specialty collecting areas defined by the archive.

Roberto Mamani Mamani. Photo used under the Creative Commons License (CC BY-SA 3.0). 

The pueblos originarios' presence and land in this continent expands throughout Souther, Central and North America. Here you will find links to museums, blogs, libraries, educative centers, and websites that hopefully will provide useful knowledge to you.

Aymara shawl. Image used under the Creative Commons Lincese CC BY-SA 2.0.