Elizabeth Swanson Andi

We are a team of Indigenous (Amazonian Kichwa) Ecuadorian and U.S. scholars committed to supporting Indigenous peoples who wish to better govern data produced about them. We bring together two Amazonian Kichwa communities in Ecuador, Santo Domingo, where Valdivia and Grefa have a research relationship, and Venecia, where T. Swanson and E. Swanson have professional and family ties, to co-create digital products and prototype a digital website that represent Kichwa peoples from their standpoint. We use mapping and storytelling methods to train youth in digital data technologies to serve this purpose. Together, we explore how co-creating digital data about traditional ecological knowledge can foster intergenerational relationships for long-term Indigenous stewardship of riverine ecosystems.