Notes on contributors
Azul (Nicolás Jiménez Reyes) is a visual artist of Mapuche descent. Originally from San Antonio, he is a member of the Asociación Indígena Calaucan and the Huenupe Llanquinao community. A graduate in visual arts from the Universidad de Playa Ancha in Valparaíso, Azul was recognised in 2020 by Chile’s Corporación Nacional Indígena [National Indigenous Corporation] for his artistic trajectory. His work seeks to reclaim and revalue the Mapuche cosmovision through a contemporary lens, blending symbols, forms and colours inspired by nature with a cosmic and spiritual aesthetic. Azul has exhibited in Chile and internationally, including in Mexico, Spain and the UK.
Sandra De Berduccy (aruma) is an artist, researcher and specialist in Andean textile weaving. She is currently completing a PhD in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Doctoral Programme at the Universidad Finis Terrae in Chile, and she is also a lecturer for the master’s programme in art and technology at the Escuela Politécnica del Litoral [Polytechnic University of the Coast] in Ecuador. Born in Oruro, Bolivia, aruma’s artistic research and practice is rooted in traditional Andean textile practices and their relationship with new media art. She creates vibrant and intricate textile installations that seek to explore the Andean textile tradition through science and technology. Her work has been exhibited in collective exhibitions around the world, and she has had solo shows in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Spain, the UK and the USA.
Sebastián (Sebas) Gerlic considers himself a ‘promoter of cultural diversity’ who is committed to recognising biocentric values essential for planetary wellbeing through his work. Born in Argentina, he trained as a filmmaker before migrating to Brazil in 1994. He is one of the founders of Thydêwá, an NGO led by four Indigenous people from three different ethnic groups, plus Sebastián as the only non-Indigenous team member. Over the past twenty-five years, Thydêwá has produced more than thirty films and thirty books through collaborative work with Indigenous communities across Abya Yala/Latin America. This work fosters the conscious appropriation of technologies, explores ancestral intelligence, investigates connections between Indigenous knowledge systems and contemporary challenges and promotes the collective human intelligence shared around campfires, both real and digital.
Tadeu Kaingang (Tadeu dos Santos) belongs to the Kaingang Indigenous people, located in southern Brazil, and has recently been given the Indigenous name Tã No, meaning ‘lightning’ in the Kaingang language. He is a visual artist whose work bridges ancestral knowledge and contemporary practices, rooted in Kaingang cosmology and sensitive to their spirituality and connection with nature. His work explores themes of territory, memory and Indigenous identity through painting, drawing and digital collage, challenging colonial stereotypes and affirming the Indigenous presence in contemporary Brazil. Together with Sheilla Souza, Tadeu is part of the artistic duo Coletivo Kókir (meaning ‘hunger’ in the Kaingang language). They have exhibited widely in Brazil and abroad, including in the São Paulo Art Museum (MASP)’s Histórias Indígenas [Indigenous Histories] exhibition in 2023–4.
Nhenety Kariri-Xocó (José Nunes de Oliveira) is an Indigenous writer, storyteller and thinker, specialising in questions of cosmovision, memory and traditional knowledge. He is Guardian of Traditions of the Kariri-Xocó people who are located on the São Francisco/Opará River in Alagoas state, Brazil. Since 2005, he has explored the intersection of ancestral wisdom and technology, maintaining a blog with over 2,000 posts. Nhenety is also author of numerous short stories and poems. He is one of the founding members of the NGO Thydêwá, where he serves as a researcher and consultant on Indigenous knowledge and ancestral intelligence, and has contributed fourteen chapters to Thydêwá’s multiethnic books. His writing seeks to affirm Indigenous presence and promote a dialogue between tradition and contemporary digital cultures.
Dave Lynch is an artist who lives in the woods with his family in Yorkshire, UK. He seeks to share encounters that reconnect our digitally entangled bodies to nature. Across the Pennine hills, Sam Hallas is an information designer. Together they are part of Immersive Networks Collective, an award-winning network of artists, technologists, scientists and academics at the forefront of global research into meaningful knowledge transfer, using the human body to push boundaries of embodied ways of knowing to inspire collective agency.
Thea Pitman is professor of Latin American studies at the University of Leeds, UK. Her research focuses on digital cultural production in Latin America with a particular emphasis on Indigenous appropriations of new media. She has published several books, including Latin American Identity in Online Cultural Production (Routledge 2013) and Decolonising the Museum: The Curation of Indigenous Contemporary Art in Brazil (Tamesis 2021). Thea is English, originally from Worcestershire, and now lives in West Yorkshire with her family and her dog, Ed. She recognises her own positionality as a non-Indigenous white woman based in a prestigious university in the Global North and, through her research, she endeavours to share the benefits of this platform with others. She has a long-standing working relationship with the NGO Thydêwá.
Alex Potiguara (Alexsandro Cosmo de Mesquita) is a visiting research fellow at the University of Leeds (2026–7) funded by the São Paulo State Department of Culture and in 2025 he was a visiting research fellow at the University of Sheffield, funded by the ESRC Digital Good Network. He is a long-standing collaborator with the NGO Thydêwá. Alex belongs to the Potiguara people who are located along the coast of Paraíba in northeastern Brazil. He holds a PhD in intelligent technologies and digital design from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) where he is a member of the expanded coordination team of the Pindorama Programme for Indigenous inclusion. His research focuses on Indigenous Peoples and digital technologies, including generative AI.
Andreas Rauh is assistant professor at the School of Communications, Dublin City University, Ireland. His research sits at the intersection of emerging media, sound and music, online platforms and generative AI, with particular attention to their implications for cultural production. His work examines questions of autonomy, authorship, creative labour and cultural production in contemporary media and digital industries, combining critical theory with practice-based research. Andreas authors traditional academic publications and draws on his background as an electronic musician to produce practice-based work in sound design and sonic art, including Sincronia Sonora (2019) with the NGO Thydêwá, Taipa de Mão (2024) and Sounding Owenmore (2025). Born and raised in Brazil, he remains attentive to issues of structural imbalance, (mis)representation and the complexities of navigating socio-cultural borders.
Lucian de Silenttio (Lucio Torrez Soria) was born in the Aymara community of Pizacaviña, in the province of La Paz, Bolivia, and currently resides in El Alto, on the outskirts of La Paz. He studied education and philosophy at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés and is a keen linguist, fluent in Aymara and Spanish, and with knowledge of French, German, English, Latin and Ancient Greek. He is an artist and cultural organiser whose practice spans photography, painting, clothing design and philosophical reflection. In his work, he seeks to weave tradition and technology into a dialogue of resistance and renewal. Lucian leads community education initiatives, including workshops to explore the creative possibilities of Artificial Intelligence. He earns his living as a master stonemason.
Mariela Tulián is Casqui Curaca (the highest political and spiritual authority) of the Tulián Indigenous people of San Marcos Sierras, Córdoba province, Argentina. She is also a writer, researcher and schoolteacher. Mariela is a member of the Argentine Consejo Educativo Autónomo de Pueblos Indígenas [Autonomous Educational Council of Indigenous Peoples], secretary for the Región Sur del Consejo de Ancianas, Ancianos y Guías Espirituales de América [Southern Region of the Council of Elders and Spiritual Guides of the Americas], and has been recognised as a key Indigenous representative in relation to research in the Historical Archive of Córdoba Province. As an author, she has published numerous books in the Pequeña Francisca [Little Francisca] series that are used in schools throughout Argentina.
Haylly Zamora Aray is an artist of Wichí heritage (from Northern Argentina) on her father’s side and Kari’ña heritage (from Venezuela) on her mother’s. She lives near the city of Resistencia, in Chaco province, northeastern Argentina. She believes that artists serve as bridges to express the collective mind, and from this perspective, she embraces the artistic commitment of transforming sacred Wichí narratives into visual form. Her work reflects a deep dialogue between ancestral stories and contemporary forms of expression, affirming the vitality of Indigenous worldviews through art.
Images generated by the following people, as well as some of their own artworks, are also included in this book:
Aymar Ccopacatty is an Aymara artist working across sculpture, textiles, performance and installation, as well as a teacher and community organiser. Originally from Peru, he relocated to the USA as a child.
Kuenan Mayu (previously Kuenan Tikuna) is a trans Indigenous visual artist, model and activist belonging to the Tikuna and Tariano Peoples, located in Amazonas state, Brazil, on the border with Colombia. Her art reflects her worldview in which nature, ancestral spirits and human beings coexist in continuous transformation, and in which gender identity is inherently fluid.
Loreto Millalén is a Mapuche textile artist, dyer and engraver, as well as dancer and poet, who works for the recognition of the Indigenous Peoples of the Wallmapu territory. She is the founder of the Ad Llallin Mapuche Textile Art School and Workshop.
Horacio Montes de Oca Ayala is an artist, graphic designer and intercultural teacher. Originally from the Bolivian Andean region, he has lived in Lafkenche (Mapuche) Territory in Chile since childhood. He is the director of a multi-ethnic group called Suma Qamaña, which focuses on Indigenous cosmovision and spirituality.
Kadu Tapuya (previously Kadu Xukuru) is an Indigenous visual artist and filmmaker working predominantly with the techniques of digital collage to explore the concept of Indigenous Futurism. He is also an activist and leading member of the Movimento da Retomada Mata Sul Indígena [Indigenous Movement to Reoccupy the Southern Forest] in Pernambuco state, Brazil.
Wera Moru Tupi-Guarani is one of the Morubixabas (political and spiritual leaders) and founders of the Tupi-Guarani community at Aldeia Tabaçu Reko Ypy in São Paulo state, Brazil. He is also a filmmaker, audiovisual producer, actor and photographer.
Ayra Ymboré is Cacica (political leader) of the Ymboré community at Aldeia do Cachimbo, Ribeirão do Largo, southern Bahia state, Brazil, and has collaborated with the NGO Thydêwá on several previous projects.