Roots: Exploring Indigenous biocultural heritage through participatory action research in Peru

Words by Sarah Oakes, photos by Phuyu Wayra

High in the Peruvian Andes, nestled between apus, lie four Quechua communities preserving over a quarter of Peru’s potato varieties in a living library of biodiversity. The biocultural heritage they cultivate here is critical for global food security; it is this diversity that offers protection against the diseases and viruses that put Western monoculture crops at high risk at a time of rapid climatic change. The potato is the world’s third most consumed staple crop; urgent need for adaptation has driven international scientists towards reductive approaches that prioritize genetics and production. Yet the intimate relationships between Indigenous communities and the land they call home mean their knowledges are vital to include for a holistic understanding of this crop and how to ensure its future. Despite this, little consideration is given to Indigenous perspectives; less attention still is given to how the cultural impacts the biological in the preservation of this at-risk biocultural heritage and territory that supports it.

Throughout 2024, with support from the SLAS Postgraduate Research Support Award and collaboration with local NGO Asociacion ANDES, I was privileged to undertake a participatory action research project in the Parque de la Papa as part of my interdisciplinary PhD at the University of Leeds. Using audiovisual tools I was able to work with community representatives to identify areas of risk for biocultural heritage loss, then document this knowledge. Our aim was to preserve key knowledge for future generations, as well as enable participants’ direct contributions to inform and influence local to global stakeholders and their decision making.

My interviews with technical experts like potato guardian Lino informed both research direction and the required outputs to bridge Indigenous communities and wider stakeholders. 

While the focus and lens was the potato, the interconnected nature of life in Andean communities meant that knowledge considered important by participants involved a breadth of interlinked themes. This included events in the farming calendar; rituals and ceremonies; potato preservation techniques; gastronomy; medicinal plants; and woven records of past and present through textile. Key concerns for the potato guardian communities included loss of foundational knowledge in the Andean cosmovision, such as how mutual respect and reciprocity between the three ayllus: the sacred, the wild and the domesticated - interlinking domains that comprise Andean communities - is vital for sumak kawsay, or bienvivir, the wellbeing of all beings within that environment and beyond.

Potato guardian Lino blows a kintu of coca leaves in gratitude and respect to a local apu.

Moving beyond the Eurocentric regard of potato as food and commodity, the research intends to bring the human into dialogue with biophysical, and Indigenous worldviews into conversation with Western perspectives, closing knowledge gaps that stem from disciplinary, linguistic, geographical and epistemological boundaries. Participatory audiovisual techniques enabled a broad range of community perspectives to be heard; ensuring more marginalised voices (e.g., Quechua-speaking women and elders) could be considered equally. It also permitted more authentic expression and for locally-valued knowledge (embedded in agricultural and sociocultural practices) to be documented in an inclusive and culturally-appropriate way. 

Outputs from the research are now being translated into locally and internationally-relevant resources targeting a range of audiences, from youth in schools to Potato Park visitors. A digital archive will preserve knowledge for future generations and public-facing outputs will inform and influence broader (public, academic, scientific and policy) audiences. The project has permitted Indigenous community members to speak beyond the local while respecting oral storytelling as a legitimate form of knowledge transfer.

An aging population and rural youth migration to Cusco for education and employment put the transmission of biocultural knowledge at risk, and with it, potato diversity. Intergenerational knowledge exchange is vital to avoid loss.

In the Peruvian Andes, knowledge exchange takes place in the chakra - the field - not just in the classroom. Recognising the ways and spaces in which knowledge is passed down, and engaging and enabling youth to participate in them, is critical for the preservation of potato diversity.

Knowledge around traditional ceremonies and rituals was considered key to preserve for future generations. Here we see a ceremony to tie the potato spirit to the land, as part of International Potato Day on 30 May 2024.

While Indigenous knowledges in the Peruvian Andes are largely transmitted orally, textiles have long held records of past and present realities. Knowledge around the meaning of specific colours and symbols is a biocultural heritage; however,  tourism puts this at risk as weavers respond to tourist market demands.

Potato preservation techniques like chuño and moraya - where potatoes are freeze dried in glacial streams and on mountain tops - are key to local food security as they guarantee nutrition despite seasonal fluxes in fresh potato availability. Once freeze dried, chuño and moraya can last up to 20 years. Rapid social and climatic changes put this knowledge at risk; while young people are becoming less involved in the process, rising temperatures mean farmers must now learn how to modify techniques and timings so crops do not rot. The ability to read biological indicators is key ancestral knowledge for future generations to learn how to support this adaptation.