TRAILS · Rethink Indigenous heritage and the rights of Nature in conflicting cultural landscapes

The TRAILS project examines the interplay between dissonant heritage perspectives and socio-natural conflicts, assessing how they arise from the frictions of authorised conservation and development regimes on living landscapes and place-based histories. Interdisciplinary scholarship, grass-roots social movements, and public policy have long sought to integrate local and expert forms of knowledge into heritage and sustainable development frameworks. In the Andes, this has often been channelled through the Indigenous philosophy of Buen Vivir, i.e. “the good living”, to emphasise continuities with community well-being, territorial governance and collective rights. However, my previous doctoral research in the region revealed unquestioned ontological and epistemological hierarchies that ultimately determine how, and for whom, Indigenous heritage matters despite seemingly inclusive policies. Further research will primarily consolidate and expand cross-sectoral exchanges in the decolonisation of Indigenous heritage, looking at the history of collecting pre-Hispanic antiquities in Northwestern Argentina to facilitate intercultural dialogue and translation across world-making practices. Secondly, the project will seek potential lines of comparison with global case studies to enhance understanding of the local, historical, and cultural contexts underlying the recognition of non-anthropocentric political subjects and the rights of Nature. The array of planned activities involving academic and non-academic partners will generate new knowledge on the cultural dimensions of environmental relations and maximise research on heritage as a cross-cutting topic at the host institution. This will enable the TRAILS project to advance beyond the current state of the art by bridging critical heritage studies with decolonial and socio-environmental justice, while keeping Indigenous rights and lifeworlds upfront to face the rapidly unfolding ecological crisis and local-global challenges.