As part of our ongoing effort to nurture collaboration within the MAST network, we started giving form to sharing circles. Sharing circles, in first stance, will be online gatherings that provide a space where network members can come together to exchange expertise, reflect on shared themes, and engage in open discussions about common motivations and concerns. The sharing circles are thought to complement the in-person workshops by offering continuity and maintaining momentum between physical meetings. They create opportunities for deeper dialogue, mutual learning, and collective sense-making across distances.
For the first sharing circle, we had the presentations of Ivan Txaparro and Nathaly Pinto, who discussed part of their work:
Ivan presented his work with Indigenous communities in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States. His practice brings together participatory design and applied ethnomusicology, with a focus on methodologies that advance epistemic resistance and activism through collaborative art, music, and new media. He introduced Resonant Lab, a collective he founded that centers on activism, art, and transdisciplinary research, engaging with feminist, Indigenous, and queer epistemologies. The collective collaborates with South American communities through music, comics, and radio to craft counter-narratives. Ivan also shared his work with youth, using hip-hop and folk music to support the construction of political identity. One of the projects he highlighted, based in Colorado, addressed environmental racism by using a mobile lab to engage local communities in co-creating a song and music video as acts of resistance.
He invited attendees to learn more at resonant.net, listen to the podcast, and watch the music video: https://bit.ly/chicanombiana.
Nathaly presented a video featuring the work of an intercultural research collective, showcasing their five-year participatory research and design project with Amazonian Indigenous nationalities in Ecuador. As a designer and researcher from the Andes, she has collaborated with Indigenous communities for nearly 15 years across academic and activist spaces. The video spotlights Shakira, a young Indigenous leader who represented the collective at the Participatory Design Conference 2024, with Nathaly providing support and translation. Centering Shakira’s voice, the video offers valuable reflections and insights on conducting research in collaboration with Indigenous communities.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/DnIs8uOyp5g.
