"Defendiendo el Jardín de la Memoria Martina Carrillo": Beyond collaborative archaeology to recuperate an Afro-Ecuadorian Maroons' Cemetery

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Global Archaeologies of the Long Emancipation", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Since 2013, we have been working as part of a collaborative project with Afro-Ecuadorian leader and maestra, Barbarita Lara (National Coordinating Committee of Black Women- Carchi), to revitalize an Afro-Ecuadorian cemetery of maroon ancestors, named Garden of Memory Martina Carrillo. In this presentation, we reflect on the challenges of protecting an Afro-Ecuadorian burial ground that outlines the role of collaborative archaeology as a platform of articulation and collective empowerment. Even more relevant, the process of defending an Afro-Ecuadorian cemetery displays colonial legacies of historical racial and gender violence from different hegemonic groups of our Ecuadorian society. Through our political actions, our project aims to grant a place for healing the wounds of colonial slavery, practice an anti-racist historical investigation, and protect the collective memory of maroons.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Global Archaeologies of the Long Emancipation

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow