Indigenous Colloquium: Interview with Ivan Sanjines by Bianca Dumlao
Ivan Sanjinés, co-founder of Ashoka, uses his background as an artist and audiovisual narrator to bring together the experiences of indigenous people in Bolivia. Alongside members of his artistic collective and political advocacy group, Sanjinés crosses language and cultural boundaries to strengthen the voice of indigenous people.
“I consider myself a Bolivian audiovisual narrator who has worked to make participatory and horizontal audiovisual production a reality, recovering indigenous and popular history and memory,” Sanjinés said. “My fight has been for the audiovisual expressiveness of indigenous peoples.”
© Ivan Sanjinés
In his work, Sanjinés amplifies the voices of not just the indigenous people in Bolivia but also their rich history as artistic, communal, and powerful people. He acts less as a leader and more as a pathway for them to tell their stories.
“Everything we do has a strategy and participatory planning: it is the communities and organizations that decide, not us,” said Sanjinés. “But there is no indigenous "one way" to tell stories, although the mythical is very powerful, and so is the need to rescue and spread the history of each community.”
The goals of Ashoka lie in the fight to transform the political authority that the plurinational regime of Bolivia holds over indigenous people. More specifically, Sanjinés works tirelessly in order to aid in the decolonization of the nation and bring power back to the mystifying voices of the indigenous people.
“[Our goal is to] continue advancing in the communicational empowerment of indigenous peoples and especially of women, who today are the majority of those who we have trained as filmmakers and communicators,” Sanjinés said.
“There are the challenges of technological progress, media and transmedia and harnessing the potential of social networks, among others. Do not lose the capacity for wonder and continue dreaming to build living well or living well. It is easier with the new Law on Bolivian Cinema and Audiovisual Art, which fully recognizes cinema.”
This interview is part of our Indigenous Colloquium held on February 24th 2022. The event brought together Indigenous groups from around the world to speak on art and advocacy.