Report on the fieldwork trip to Colombia funded by SLAS (September 2012)

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to SLAS for having awarded me the Postgraduate Travel Grants, which allowed me to continue my fieldwork in Colombia in September this year. The field trip proved to be an enormous success and resulted in production of great quality of visual materials and gathering important theoretical background and contacts. The success of this research trip has exceeded my expectations by far.

I am currently a MPhil student at Birkbeck, University of London, at the Department of Iberian and Latin American Studies. The subject of my research is visual representation of Indigenous Cultures of Colombia. My research is practice based and it involves photography and video. This involves frequent travels to various regions of Colombia, which can be quite a difficult task in economical terms.

SLAS postgraduate travel grant was an enormous help, which enabled me to accelerate my research, in both the practical and theoretical aspects.

First of all I have managed to organize a meeting with Profesor Reinaldo Barbosa Estepa from the Anthropology Department of the Universiadad Nacional in Bogota, who helped me mediate the difficult balance of the academic work and artistic (video) with the Indigenous communities. Profesor Barbosa is of Indigenous origin himself, and he proved to be an excellent source of information and contacts for my investigation.

Then I Participated in the Fesitval de Cine Ambiental: Surrealidades, which was another enormous step forward for my understanding of the subject. The organizers of the festival invited a representatives of various Indigenous Cultures of Colombia to speak about the importance of their communities, and to take part in a ritual which took place on the Monserate hill in Bogota. It gave me an unique opportunity not only to be introduced to many of the important people, observe the rituals but also to participate in talks and discussions. I was also asked to do some visual documentation of some of the discussions, which I find extremely important for the further analysis.

Next step of my research trip was a travel to Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, where I have visited la Ciudad Perdida of ancient Tairona culture, and worked with the Kogi people, who are the most significant descendants of Taironas. It resulted in a series of beautiful photographs and some interesting interviews. The video material I have produced during this trip is an important part which might contribute to the final production of the documentary I am hoping to produce for my thesis.

The following step was a participation in the Festival De Cine Indigena, which it the most important festival of this kind in the world. During a week, I took part in presentations, discussions and meetings with directors and producers, and I have saturated myself with a decent knowledge of the indigenous productions.

A wide network of contacts I have managed to build in Bogota and beyond, allowed me to organize a series of very inspiring meetings in the capital: one with representatives of Tubu culture. Imika, one of the representatives of the community, was kind enough to answer all my questions, most of all related to the nature of similar encounter, the importance of multiculturalism and the validity of projects similar to mine. In fact, my idea of creating a documentary depicting this kind of multicultural dialog was welcomed with great enthusiasm. I was presented to some Tubu rituals and explain the most important aspects of the community.

Finally I managed to meet with fellow researchers from the University of the Andes, Bogota. One of them, Martin Vasquez, pursues his research about the representatives of Kofan culture form the Putumayo region in Amazonas. He particularly concentrates on the Kofanes who moved to Bogota, and created a centre dedicated to support their culture. We discussed the question of multiculturalism, exchanged the bibliography and useful contacts.

I have also got in touch with various cinema producers who gave me some idea about the Indigenous productions and facilitated some copies.

All the aspects of my research described above would not have been possible without making this trip, and the trip would’t be possible without the SLAS grant. It is impossible to overestimate the importance off all the encounters, presentations and of course - visual materials I have gathered. The network of contacts I have managed to gather during this trip will allow me to continue the research and build an extensive theoretical work while in London.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank SLAS for agreeing to help fund my research trip to Colombia. This trip would not have been possible without SLAS assistance.

Agata Lulkowska (MPhil, Birkbeck, Univerisy of Lonodn)

1 October 2012