PhD Candidate || School of Social and Political Sciences (Anthropology), University of Sydney

I am an Uruguayan woman of Indigenous (Pampina, Abya Yala), African and Iberian decent and a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney. My current thesis ‘Lost, Scattered, Silenced and Hidden Memories: healing from national myths of whiteness to (re)connect and (re)emerge our invisibilised Indigenous and Afro- ancestors and knowledges’ is supervised by Prof Jakelin Troy, Prof Warwick Anderson and Dr Sophie Chao. As a recipient of the Indigenous Knowledges, Health and Sustainability Scholarship my research is tied to the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project ‘Planetary health Historicities: Developing Concepts’ led by Prof Warwick Anderson, Prof Jakelin Troy, Prof Anthony Capon, and Prof Sverker Sörlin.

My research aims to further the unearthing of ancient Indigenous and African knowledges that are embedded and, ‘hidden in plain sight’, within the Uruguayan culture in hopes to (re)connect and (re)emerge key concepts in caring for land, non-human species, and elements. I follow the trails and stories of my ancestors and non-human species within our ancestral lands and waterways in this project as I do in my everyday life. As an emerging Indigenous anthropologist my research is a part of my connection to my ancestors and vice versa. My goal and responsibility as both a woman and an Indigenous person in Uruguay is to weave (re)emerged knowledges and (re)assemble the memories that have been scattered throughout time onto the Gran Quillapí del Oyendau (Grand Quillapí of Memory) through this academic channel.

I am a part of the Sydney Environment Institute, the interdisciplinary research community for the School of Social and Political Sciences Environment theme, and the Sydney Indigenous Research Network.

I am grateful to learn and work on Gadigal land and extend my gratitude to the lands and waterways which I live on today, Merri-bek. I respectfully acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin nation as the traditional owners and custodians of their respective lands and waterways. I pay my respects and share my gratitude to the land and waterways in the Pampian region of Abya Yala that gave me life and that I call home, the lands of some of my ancestors. I acknowledge my own ancestors and inchalas (siblings) of the Charrúa Nation as one of the many true custodians of these lands. Finally, I extend this respect to all First Nations peoples world-wide and the hard work that comes with caring for their people, land, culture, and kin-- non-human and elemental. Many of whom have been unknowingly mentors of mine throughout my journey on this plane. I give my gratitude and respect to all elders, past, present and emerging.

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