Sacha Taki (Songs of the Forest)

What’s on offer?

This event is the world premiere of a short documentary (15 mins in Spanish with English subtitles) and exhibition of illustrations, followed by a chance to talk with the film maker, artist, project researchers, NGO director and community members.

This event is available in person and online. For those attending in person it will commence at 6.45 and finish tbc, for those attending online it is running 7-8pm.

What’s it about?

Sacha Taki (Songs of the Forest) is a short documentary about the irrevocable links between biological and cultural diversity in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

In the film members of the Pueblo Ancestral Kichwa Kawsak Sacha (PAKKS), an indigenous organization in the province of Pastaza, describe how their soundscape is a critical point of contact for communication between humans and all other beings in the forest – the animals, weather, forest spirits and their ancestors. The film is accompanied by an exquisite illustration of how humans listen to all the beings of the forest to live better lives.

Through this work we gain insight into the cosmovision of the PAKKS community, we understand the soundscape, as a nexus between nature and culture; we realise that we cannot understand and protect one without considering the other. Insights from the communities invite us to reconsider global conservation imperatives and to reflect on our own relationship with the rest of the natural world.

The film and illustration were created as part of a participatory action project carried out with the communities in order to register and articulate the ecological, cultural, social and spiritual value of their forests. This feeds an ongoing project of the same name which addresses the conservation of biological and cultural diversity through soundscape heritage.

Who’s leading the event?

Alice Eldridge, Reader in Sonic Systems, University of Sussex, UK

with

Pastor Inmunda – President of the PAKKS Communities Ecuador

Paola Moscoso - Independent researcher, Ecuador

Gus Chiriboga - Film maker, Ecuador

Sozapato – Illustrator, Ecuador

Didier Lacaze - Director, Sacha Warmi Intercultural Health Programs, Ecuador

Open to

Open to all, online or in person at the Onca Barge, Brighton Marina O N C A Barge

Of particular interest to

Those interested in environmental issues, global perspectives in conservation, indigenous cosmovision and earth jurisprudence