Missionary Engagements, Extractive Histories, and Indigenous Land

Long-term colonial effects on Indigenous cultural transmission
The mission system and colonisation have profoundly impacted the history, Indigenous memory, and cultural transmission of the Shuar people in lowland Ecuador. The EU-funded MEEHIL project aims to study the complexities and contradictions between Indigenous narratives of history and the colonial narratives shaped by missionary intervention among the Shuar people. Specifically, the project will study how colonial history continues to affect Indigenous politics today and how the presence of missionaries has shaped Indigenous lands. It will review historical archives from the late 19th-century Salesian and Franciscan missions, gather testimonies from Indigenous participants, and map the influence of missionaries on Indigenous territories. Overall, MEEHIL will shed light on the long-term colonial influences on people’s perspectives and contemporary political developments.