DOCUMENTARY
Caliata: a window to the memory

OVERVIEW

Synopsis: “Caliata”

The film is “a window to the memory” and to the agri-food system of the Kichwa-Puruwá ancient people of Ecuador. This window offers a narrative different from the conventional vision of the indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian highlands, who have often been depicted as the defeated, “the poor,” at the mercy of the goodwill of third parties, or the backward society in a modern-urban world.

Our narrative is one that speaks to resistance and the resilient management of knowledge, technologies, biodiversity and agroecological spaces. It shares the core values of indigenous identity, such as reciprocal work and feasting. We say that it is a window to the future because it arises from an ethnographic research project aimed at helping the Kichwa-Puruwá People to remember their past, understand their present, and reflect on their future possibilities.

It is also a window to memory to help remind other indigenous populations of the value of their ancestral knowledge, their agricultural production technologies, their food sovereignty, and the good way of living as a viable possibility of development. It is a window to help Ecuadorians remember who we are through our food and cultural identities. And finally, it is a window to help the world to remember that, for millennia, indigenous peoples knew how to relate to and learn from Pachamama (Mother Nature), and that this knowledge based on sustainability, ecological efficiency and nutritional quality is fundamental in facing planetary challenges such as food insecurity and the current climate crisis.