Collective residencies / ENERGY TRANSITION / Olot
ANDREA M. VÁSQUEZ FERNÁNDEZ
From Monday, 5 March 2018 to Sunday, 18 March 2018
Bio
Andrea is a Quechua-descendent Peruvian PhD student in the University of British Columbia. Andrea has a B.Sc. in Forestry Engineering from Peru’s National Agrarian University of La Molina and a MSc. in interdisciplinary studies from Canada’s University of British Columbia.
Andrea has been invited by community members to form an alliance with the Asheninka and Yine-Yami peoples, two Pueblos Originarios in the Peruvian Amazon. She is a part of a pluri-cultural research team, which is also formed by Raúl Sebastián (Yine-Yami community member), María Shuñaqui and Miriam Perez (both Asheninka community members).
Using Indigenous theories and methodologies in a power-shared research, the research team is committed to conduct collaboratively a community-led research that focuses in defining from Asheninka’s and Yine-Yami’s perspectives how western [and westernized] societies should behave when interacting with them and their territories —places called home— vis-à-vis extractive industries.
Project
Worldwide is encouraged the argument of mutual respect to promote peace, dialogue, and understanding. The term mutual would imply that the parts involved have a common practice/understanding of respect. However, there is one dominant approach of respect (laws, policies, programs and institutions’ practice) imposed on the rest of the civilizations. This approach is based on 1700s-1800s foundational ideas proposed by Immanuel Kant. He is the principal referent in modern thought about respect. The research team and collaborators are interested in articulate and co-create pluri-cultural perspectives/protocols of respect based on Asheninka and Yine-Yami perspectives and work toward an intercultural respect.
A Peruvian in Olot: An experience like never before
I come from the Forest engineering discipline and lately from a more interdisciplinary exposure (Environmental and Social sciences, Indigenous politics, and Political anthropology) and I have never heard about this type of opportunity before. One day I receive an email of invitation to apply to Faber Residency in Olot and I was perplexed. The invitation arrived in a particular moment in my PhD program: I needed to focus in get prepared for an important milestone in the program, the doctoral comprehensive exam. Therefore, I decided to go for it.
The experience exceeded my expectations. Being able to have time to focus on the identified tasks in a quiet and enabling environment was valuable. In my everyday life, I am usually surrounded by the craziness of traffic, long commutes, several commitments, meetings, and events, then, I immensely enjoyed owning the management of my time (working with the wonderful landscape of Olot in my window, was a beautiful plus!). The warmth, kindness and (now) friendship of my fellow residents made the stay even more precious. Together we shared marvellous meals and time sharing our projects, expectations, doubts, inquiries, and even watching documentaries!
The enabling working platform, quite environment, charming landscapes, delicious food, and specially the human quality as well as the genuinely caring from both, the Faber team and the whole Riu Fluvià Hotel personnel made this residence an experience like I never had before.
Many thanks for all!