PRATEC the Andean Project of Peasant Technologies
PRATEC is a NGO with two decades of in-depth experience with Andean indigenous communities especially Quechua and Aymara peoples, but also including the Quechua lamas peoples in the Upper Amazon region.
Map of the 20 NACAs PRATEC works with
PRATEC’s commitment has been to regenerate cultural and biodiversity related knowledge, practices and local governance systems. PRATEC's strength lies in the network of twenty community-based organizations in the Andean region, known as NACAs (Nuclei for the Andean Cultural Affirmation), which play a vital role in accompanying the communities in project activities oriented to the recovery of their environmental and cultural commons. Cultural affirmation, that is, the empowerment of communities based on their own knowledge transmitted intergenerationally, is the precondition of decolonization and self-managed development, and, the active practice of cultural diversity.
In October 2002, PRATEC included the production of videos through a component of the FIAC (Fondo de Iniciativas de Afirmación Cultural). This Fund for Cultural Affirmation Initiatives is accompanied by video documentation as the means to share experiences among the Andean Amazonian communities and the NACAs about the traditions presently existing in the central Andean region. It has also helped in widely disseminating the whole of PRATEC’s learning in the various projects with the communities and the NACAs to a wider audience.
PRATEC created an audiovisual department in 2002 where the material is edited, copied and distributed back to each NACA. From the beginning it was clear that the videos should be videos "from within", "from inside" the Andean cultures to strengthen Andean Amazonian culture.
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VIDEOS- click on image to see video
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Iskay Yachay, Two kinds of knowledge
30 min 49 secs
The Campesinos from Cusco explain what school they want for their children, what education is needed for life to flourish
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The Ritual Nurturance of the Chacras (cultivated fields) in the Andes
4 min 30 sec
In the Andean highlands and in the Upper Amazon, ten Nuclei for Andean Cultural Affirmation (NACA’s) are acting for the conservation of native plants in the Andes.
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These videos “from the inside” are for the cultural affirmation of the Andean Amazonian communities. The main purpose of the videos is to motivate other communities to revive forgotten traditions. Since Andean Amazonian cultures are oral cultures the use of video to motivate their cultural affirmation has worked very well. To achieve this, the 20 NACAs were trained to make videos with equipment that was made increasingly available. We call them “home made Videos” or “Sachavideos”. Presently 18 of the 20 NACAs have been equipped with digital video cameras, 12 of the 20 NACAs have editing equipment. The NACAs have been trained in the production of videos. Therefore the NACAs are now becoming increasingly autonomous in their video production. The emphasis of the program has been to support the NACAs in giving image and voice to the indigenous peoples they accompany in their effort for cultural affirmation.
So far PRATEC’s audiovisual department in close collaboration with the NACAs has produced 34 videos and 8 Multimedia interactive CD´s on different themes and issues since October 2002. Most of them include material shot by the indigenous video makers in the NACAs.
So far, the videos present community activities according to the local agro-festive calendar. The idea has been to show the centrality of the chacra, or cultivated field, in the Andean Amazonian communities’ way of being-in-the world.
All of the NACAs and indigenous communities are based in the Peru, in the Andean and upper Amazon Region. The central Andes, in which Peru is located, show a great diversity in ecosystems, ranging from the desertic coastal area, the Sierra highlands, and the Amazon.
Living in territories so diverse, presents enormous challenges and the Andean Amazonian communities have developed ways of adaptation which are unique in the planet. The area is known as a centre of the origin of agriculture and is one of the megacenters of biological diversity. In terms of cultivated biodiversity, it ranks at the top in the planet with numerous native species and varieties within these species.
For more information on videos, photographs and articles please go to the www.pratec.org.pe which is written in Spanish
Contact details:
PRATEC
Calle Martín Pérez 866, Magdalena del Mar, Lima, Perú
Tel. Fax. 0051-1-2612825
www.pratec.org.pe
