Thesis abstract:

As an Uruguayan woman of Indigenous (Pampina | Abya Yala), African and Iberian decent, and a product of colonial tactics that aimed to erase the notion of myriad identities in my country, I use my anthropological training in research to speak on my ancestors knowledges, identities, and customs that have been silenced and invisibilised since the creation of the nation-state I was taught to call home.

The Uruguayan cultural system is deeply rooted in the care for land and non-human species (kin). However, due to over 200 years of colonisation, such culture is rarely connected to our Indigenous and African roots, rather, they are invisibilised under the shadow casted by European nation building narratives and dominant views of the nation being populated mostly by Iberian settlers. With that said, many argue that our cultural system is a product of Criollos, the children of Europeans born in Uruguay who by mere change of landscape created a whole new way of being and life. Such argument, although popular, lacks depth and the stories of our non-Criollo population. This research aims to further the unearthing of ancient Indigenous and African knowledges that are embedded and, as I like to say, ‘hidden in plain sight’, within our Uruguayan culture in hopes to (re)connect and (re)emerge key concepts in caring for land and non-human kin.

The Uruguayan cultural system can be viewed as an arrangement of interwoven knowledges and practices fruit of our myriad ancestries. Many Uruguayans, although proud to call this culture theirs, are ignorant to the roots of their own customs, rituals, and habits, myself having been one of them. I look to theoretically untangle our cultural system and bring to light the knowledges that have been lying in the dark in hopes to bring these findings back to my people so that we may connect further with the notion of Uruguay as populated by a people of myriad identities and, in turn, fortify the knowledges, existence and power of our Indigenous and Afro- population.

I look to weave my own voice, thoughts and emotions into my academic research through the use of auto-ethnography. As an emerging Indigenous person and an anthropologist my research is a part of my connection to my ancestors and my connection to my ancestors are a part of my research. By allowing my voice to weed into my research it allows for the readers to understand and be reminded of my positionally, humanising the researcher, whilst also ensuring that my duties to my people, my ancestors, and our lost cultures are being represented and given the attention and care they deserve. My responsibility as both a woman and an Indigenous person in Uruguay, is to weave our (re)emerged knowledges and (re)assemble the memories that have been scattered throughout time onto our Gran Quillapí del Oyendau (grand quillapí of memory). Through this academic channel, as I did with my honours thesis, I intend to do such in a conscious effort to bring together our Indigenous history and culture.